A little wonder, every day
The radio *War of the Worlds* and the panic story
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Символічна AI-обкладинка про книжку та радіо; не є документальним фото чи реальною обкладинкою. / AI-generated symbolic cover about a book and radio; not documentary photography or an actual book cover.
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On 30 October 1938, *The Mercury Theatre on the Air* broadcast a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’s *The War of the Worlds*. The production used interruptions by fictional news bulletins, so some listeners who tuned in partway through may have mistaken it for real news. Later historical research, however, found the familiar story of nationwide mass panic to be exaggerated: some people were frightened, but its scale is difficult to establish from contemporary newspapers and a selective survey.