A New York newspaper convinced readers the Moon had bat-winged people on it

In August 1835 the New York Sun ran a six-part series claiming astronomer John Herschel had spotted unicorns, blue goats and bat-winged humanoids on the Moon through a giant new telescope. Circulation exploded and rival papers reprinted it as fact before the Sun let the story quietly die without ever really retracting it.

— Richard Adams Locke, The Moon Hoax — New York Sun, August 1835