Historedia
Episode 1 of 2

Publication of the Great Moon Hoax

When
25 August 1835
Where
The New York Sun office
Part of
The Great Moon Hoax published by The New York Sun

The New York Sun published six articles beginning August 25, 1835, describing life on the Moon, falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel.

The series was advertised on August 21, 1835, as a reprint from The Edinburgh Courant. The articles described life and civilization on the Moon, falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel and his fictitious companion Andrew Grant. The Sun never retracted these articles.

Sources

  1. Great Moon Hoax Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24
  2. The Sun (New York City) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.