Broadcast of The War of the Worlds Causes Panic (1938): Before there was television, people used to turn on their radios to listen to music, hear talk programs, and to get news. On Sunday, October 30, 1938, millions of radio listeners turned on their radios and heard realistic sounding descriptions of an attack of Martians on the United States.
Since many people turned on their radios in the middle of the program, they did not here the preface of the show which stated that the program was an adaptation of H.G. Wells' book, War of the Worlds. Many thought the attack was real and thus ran out of their homes screaming; others packed up their cars and fled.
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