12 greatest hoaxes in history

Eighty eight million five hundred sixty three thousand nine hundred fifty four

Intentional misrepresentation of many people — this is a hoax. Who and what does it do? One is to become famous and make money, others just love to joke around.

The website has collected 12 loud and interesting cases in history when tens of thousands of people were deceived.

Fairies of Cottingley





"Fairies of Cottingley" — a series of photographs taken in 1917 and 1921 two girls 10 and 16 years. The photos were to serve as proof of the existence of fairies and elves and made a lot of noise, but turned out to be one of the most talented hoaxes of the twentieth century.

The girls helped that one of them worked in the photographic laboratory of the College.

The Arthur Conan Doyle to his death believed in the authenticity of the Cottingley photographs.

Sources: hoaxes, openculture

"Disappearing" blonde





In 2002 the BBC has published an article claiming that people with blond hair are born less and less, and after a couple centuries and they did die.

Later in the New York Times published an article stating that the results of the study were falsified. But the myth has taken root and is repeated in different variations.

Actually recessive genes, such as genes, blonde hair, passed down from generation to generation, not manifesting itself, and then suddenly "shoot".

The Loch ness monster





The Loch ness monster, perhaps the most famous hoax in the world. In 1934, in the Daily Mail appeared first in the history of the mysterious animal, made by the London surgeon, Wilson.

The photo shocked the world, but in 1994 it was established that it was a fake. Until that time, faith in the honesty of Dr. Wilson, and a beautiful myth about the Loch ness monster was unmoved.

Sources: livescience

Piltdown man





In 1912, Amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson announced that he had discovered the remains of an ancient being — the supposedly missing link in the evolution between APE and man.

To expose Dawson's was only 40 years later when it was found that the skull of Piltdown man was a human skull of Medieval times, connected with the jaw of an orangutan.

Sources: wikipedia, nhm, livescience

Photo spirits of William Mumler





In the late nineteenth century new York photographer William Mamler started the production of photos with people allegedly manifested the spirits of their dead relatives.

His most famous work is a photograph of Mary Todd Lincoln with the "Ghost" of her deceased husband, President Abraham Lincoln. Photo lab didn't put me out of business, but when Mumler suspected of fraud, he was ruined.

Sources: hoaxes, photographymuseum

The lying stones of Beringer





In 1725, Professor of medicine Johann Beringer discovered during the excavation of the engraving. They were shown the prehistoric flora and fauna, as well as inscriptions in Hebrew.

He considered finding proof of God's Providence and published work on this topic. But it turned out that the stones he pushed his colleagues out of revenge.

Burst into a terrible scandal, which forever destroyed the reputation of the unfortunate scientist.

Sources: wikipedia, atlasobscura

The chess machine "the Turk"





At the end of the XVIII century inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen created a chess machine in the form of a man in Turkish clothes, sitting at the table.

Of the 300 games played "Turk" has lost only 6 and made a splash that even Napoleon was among the defeated.

No one could figure out how it works. Everyone saw that a large part of the box is a mechanism, and man would have nowhere to fit.

It turned out, inside the car sat a chess player, who lost his legs in the war. Using magnets he could see what was happening on the Board and ran a "Turk".

Sources: slate, the bbc, chessgames

Alien autopsy





In 1947 in Roswell, USA, allegedly crashed space ship with aliens on Board.

In 1995, British film producer ray Santilli unveiled a sensational video with the autopsy of a dead alien ship. Later it turned out that it was a fake with sham humanoid, taken at the initiative of Santilli.

Sources: livescience, mirror

Tourist of death





After the events of September 11, the Internet began to go a picture of the guy supposedly standing on the roof of the world trade center at the time of the approach of the fatal plane.

But there are observant people who noticed that there is something wrong:

  • Tourists couldn't be on the roof of the WTC at the time when the plane crashed into the building (8:45), since the observation deck was open at 9:30.
  • The plane in the pictures comes from the wrong side, with which he flew really.
  • And in General it's the plane not the model!
  • The angle of the shadow wrong for this time of day.
  • The font with which the camera is pointed out the date of the image, not one that is normally used.
So the myth about the tourist's death was debunked.

Sources: touristofdeath, snopes

The radio play "war of the worlds"





In 1938 Director Orson Welles put a radio play based on the novel "war of the worlds" by Hg wells about the attack of Martians on Earth.

The radio show, stylized stories in the air, was well done for the time: text was interrupted by noise interference and inclusions "correspondents".

Listeners were warned of staging, but some forgot about the warning. Some of them started to panic and ran away from the city (especially after allegedly calling President Roosevelt to remain calm).

Sources: bbc, paleofuture, telegraph

Eternal engine Redheffer





In 1813, Charles Redheffer proclaimed himself to be the man who finally managed to create a perpetual motion machine. Around rose the hype, but the engineer Robert Fulton was skeptical.

After seeing the creation of the "inventor", Fulton realized that there is some force to bring the mechanism into motion. This power was the old man sitting in the attic and twisting the handle of the machine.

Sources: hoaxes, veproject1

The legend of the death of Paul McCartney





In 1969, there were rumors that the lead singer of the Beatles Paul McCartney died in a car accident three years earlier. Supposedly the producers didn't want to advertise it and replaced the musician's counterpart, and other members of the group, not being able to speak openly about the incident, began to insert his work in "keys" in the form of strange images on the cover, the ambiguous words in the lyrics.

For example:

  • On the cover of the album "The Beatles Yesterday and Today" (1) the Floor sits in an open suitcase, resembling a coffin.
  • On the cover of the album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (2) flower-bed like a grave, and the yellow hyacinths (symbol of death) are added to the bass guitar left-handed (Paul).
  • The chorus of the song "It's Getting Better" when the reverse run sounds like "After all Paul is dead. He lost his hairs, head" ("In the end, Paul is dead. He lost his hair, his head").
  • On the cover of "Abbey Road" (3) only Gender is depicted barefoot (in many countries the dead are buried without shoes) and is out of step with the others.

  • On the cover of the album "Magical Mystery Tour" (4) musicians dressed as animals, including black walrus, which supposedly symbolizes death.

McCartney refers to this theory with humor. And of course...

Sources: the beatles.wikia, wikipedia, time

















Photo preview David Magnus/REX/Shutterstock, ILPO MUSTO/REX/Shutterstock


See also
13 incredible coincidences that leave many questions to this world
9 incidents that make the Earth a hell of a mysterious place


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