On Tuesday, 25 August 1835, the newspaper The New York Sun began publishing a fictional
account of lunar discoveries supposedly made
by Sir John Herschel. The narrative, which continued over six days, listed a series of amaz-
ing astronomical breakthroughs and revealed one stunning achievement in detail: The discovery of life on the moon. The articles caused enormous excitement throughout New York and were republished in the whole U.S. and even in Europe.