The Hoaxers Behind The HeadlinesHistory is full of supposedly impossible discoveries that turned out to have very ordinary people hiding behind them. Fake fossils fooled scientists, forged diaries embarrassed historians, and paper fairies convinced famous...
The internet may have transformed misinformation into a high-speed international sport, but humanity was perfectly capable of fooling itself long before modems arrived. Newspapers, museums, radio stations, respected scientists, and famous authors all helped spread claims that sounded convincing—until somebody checked the evidence.
Mary Bateman, the Yorkshire Witch, convinced crowds that a hen laid eggs predicting Christ’s return. Discover how her bizarre 1806 hoax exploited superstition and concealed a darker criminal career.
Discover why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed the famous Cottingley Fairies photographs were real, how two girls created the historic hoax, and why the deception fooled one of history's greatest authors.
Truth is stranger than fiction, and throughout history, pranksters, hucksters, and frauds exploited humanity’s hunger for the extraordinary.
When an exotic foreign princess showed up in an English village, it marked the beginning of one of history's wildest hoaxes.
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