A radio broadcast of H. G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds panicked thousands of listeners back in 1938. People who tuned in actually believed that aliens had landed on a farm in New Jersey and were preparing to attack the United States. They mistook a work of fiction for actual current events! A series of phony news bulletins featured a reporter giving an “eyewitness” account of terrifying happenings. As a result, confused citizens swarmed police stations and hundreds of people required medical help for “shock and hysteria.”