My favourite is the story that there was mass panic over a radio broadcast of War of the Worlds where everyone thought a real alien invasion was happening. I heard this story as a kid and really thought this was a cruel prank played by the radio station.
In reality, they made it clear at the beginning of the broadcast, and twice during, that it was fictional. Not that many people were listening and most of the people who were, were aware it wasn’t real. A few idiots freaked out and it somehow turned into a story of mass panic. It was propaganda by newspapers to discredit radio.
The claim was that carrots were good for eyesight in general but also for night sight in particular, suggesting the British pilots were scarfing down carrots by the bucketful and that was how their night patrols were able to intercept the German bombers so often.
Somewhere, I also read that German high command wanted their own pilots to up their carrot consumption but didn’t think the German pilots would go for it just because of the night sight thing, so they made up a lie that the British pilots ate the carrots to improve their sexual prowess.
oh that makes more sense, thank you!
Warnings that smoking increases the risk of cancer were not heeded. It was only when it was written that smoking could cause impotence that people began to think.