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We all play eRepublik and think ourselves as great military commanders, soldiers and tacticians. We shine in the political negotiations across the world. We rewrite history...but what do we know about our own history?

This is a series on (military) history and the great conflicts of the real world. Now and then, I will try to bring chapters of history to live through photos, sound and video.

We write New Jersey, 1938. It’s the 30th of October and Halloween night. A young radio maker by the name of Orson Welles has read the classical science fiction novel ‘War of the Worlds’ by H.G. Wells and decides the tale about a martian invasion is a perfect spooky story for Halloween.

Orson Welles adapts and updates the story to fit the medium of radio. His broadcast starts as an everyday musical programme, but is soon interrupted by an emergency news bulletin. Through news programmes, interviews and the first sound effects, Orson Welles manages to evocate the martian invasion of New Jersey.

Historical research estimates about 6 million people have listened to the radio show. Of those 6 million, an estimated 1.7 million believed it to be true and 1.2 million actually feared for their own lives. Police stations were swamped with reports of people smelling gas, seeing bright flashes in the sky and actually seeing heat rays in action.

Main reasons for the mass hysteria were contributed to the nervous tension about a possible world war and the fact this kind of fictional radio show had never been broadcasted before in the United States. People were used to believe everything they heard on the radio news.

CBS Radio was buried under official complaints, but eventually managed to escape prosecution because listeners had been warned up front it was fictional. They had to officially promise though ‘never to do something like that again. Ever’.

It surely opened the debate about the role of modern mass media and today is still a classical example of the influence a media module can have on the public. A debate still raging on today.

For the fans, ‘The War of the Worlds’ can be relived through this link.