“The Great Moon Hoax” was a series of six articles that were published in the New York Sun beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and even civilization on the Moon. The discoveries were falsely attributed to Sir John Herschel, perhaps the best-known astronomer of his time.
The articles described fantastic animals on the Moon, including bison, goats, unicorns, bipedal tail-less beavers and bat-like winged humanoids (“Vespertilio-homo”) who built temples. There were trees and oceans and beaches. These discoveries were supposedly made with “an immense telescope of an entirely new principle”.
To render our enthusiasm intelligible, we will state at
once, that by means of a telescope of vast dimensions and en
entirely new principle, the younger Herschel, at his
observatory in the Southern Hemisphere, has already made the
most extraordinary discoveries in every planet of our solar
system; has discovered planets in other solar systems; has
obtained a distinct view of objects in the moon, fully equal
to that which the naked eye commands of terrestrial objects
at the distance of a hundred yards; has affirmatively
settled the question whether this satellite be inhabited,
and by what order of things; has firmly established a new
theory of cometary phenomena; and has solved or corrected
nearly every leading problem of mathematical astronomy.
wikipedia article about the Great Moon Hoax – Read the original articles here