This Day In History

October 30: War of the Worlds broadcast

The War of the Worlds was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air, aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network, directed and narrated by Orson Welles, and adapted from HG Wells novel of the same name.
In a not entirely original move on Welles’ behalf* – though the American audience didn’t know this – the first two-thirds of the 60-minute broadcast were presented as a series of simulated news bulletins  which encouraged large portions of its listeners to actually believe a martian invasion was taking place**.
Using news formats to present drama was derided by newspapers and public figures as deception, and stirred up a right old hornet’s nest in the American media. How much geniune panic it actually caused is debatable and somewhat immeasurable – some newspaper reporting people fleeing their homes, smelling gas attacks and seeing lightning attacks in the distance. It did however, certainly succeed in launching Orson Welles to fame.

* Fr. Ronald Knox's satirical "newscast" of a riot overtaking London over the British Broadcasting Company in 1926 had a similar approach (and created much the same effect on its audience).
** Welles introduction to the play actually notes it is set in 1939, a year ahead of its broadcast time. However, because many people tuned in part of the way through and were duped by the newscast presentation, they believed events were being covered live. Martians were ininnerating crowds with heat-rays and reporters were being cut-off dramatically mid-sentence, regular programming breaking down as the studio struggles to keep up with casualties and incidents.
The fifty-five-and-a-half minute play had no commercial breaks and its prolonged versimilitude has been cited as a key factor in the confusion that followed.

H. G. Wells' novel is about an alien invasion of Earth, set in Woking, England at the end of the 19th century.