A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands of radio
listeners between 8:15 and 9:30 o'clock last night when a
broadcast of a dramatization of H. G. Wells's fantasy, "The
War of the Worlds," led thousands to believe that an
interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians
spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and
New York
-- New York Times, "Radio Listeners in Panic," October 31,
1938
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