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10 famous hoaxes

TEN FAMOUS HOAXES

A feathered missing link
Discovered: 1997 Exposed: 1999
In 1999, the national Geographic society trumpeted the discovery, two years earlier, of the remains of a dinosaur covered in bird-like plumage. it was not a missing link, but a forgery created by a chinese farmer.


Hitler’s diaries
Discovered And Exposed: 1983 
Historian Hugh trevor-roper was left with egg on his face after authenticating documents purporting to be the nazi leader’s diaries. they were actually the handiwork of Konrad Kujau, a notorious German forger.
orson Welles caused panic across the us with his radio broadcast in 1938


Piltdown Man 
Discovered: 1912 Exposed: 1953 
A skull and jawbone discovered in Piltdown in east sussex were relics from a modern man and an orangutan – not a previously unknown form of early human, as amateur archaeologist (and the hoax’s perpetrator) charles Dawson claimed.
The Fiji Mermaid 
Publicised and exposed: 1842
the legendary circus impresario Pt Barnum toured the us with this ‘mummified mermaid’ – and had the public fooled. until, that is, it emerged that the mermaid possessed the withered head of a monkey and the tail of a dried fish.


Alien autopsy
Publicised: Early 1990s Exposed: 1995
the bodies that appeared in film footage claimed to depict an alien autopsy performed after the roswell ufo incident in 1947 were, in fact, dummies created by ray santilli, an entrepreneur from london’s camden town.


The Cardiff Giant
Discovered And Exposed: 1869
A 10ft-tall ‘petrified man’ excavated by workers in cardiff, new york, turned out to have been carved out of gypsum by tobacconist George Hull.


The War Of The Worlds
Perpetrated And Exposed: 1938
thousands of Americans believed that their country was under attack by aliens when orson Welles broadcast a radio adaptation of HG Wells’ the War of the Worlds.


The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion
Published: 1903 Exposed: 1921
this anti-semitic book, purporting to describe a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world, was disseminated across the globe. it was probably plagiarised by russian agents from various sources.


The Cottingley Fairies
Claimed: 1917 Exposed: 1980s
more than 60 years after edwardian england was enchanted by five pictures showing two young girls, frances Griffiths and elsie Wright, surrounded by fairies, the former admitted the photos were hoaxes.


Loch Ness Monster
photo Taken: 1934 exposed: 1990s 
robert Kenneth Wilson’s iconic photo seemed to confirm the loch ness monster’s existence, but later analysis suggested that ‘nessie’ was probably being towed.

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