On this day in 1938 Orson Welles’s adaptation of H. G. Wells‘s novel The War of the Worlds was broadcasted on the radio.

When the programme was aired on October 30th, 1938, many listeners reportedly mistook the fictional broadcast for a genuine news report.

You can listen to a new version of the realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth in the ARD Audiothek starting (at 3:52) after a short introduction in German.