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What happened?
It was read like a news broadcast and many people were unaware it was a fictional reading. The story was re-written for this radio broadcast to sound like a news report and caused mass hysteria.
But the truth is, that's the fictional story. It's all hyperbole and a bunch of newspapers at the time ran with it, to have some fun and sell some papers. There was never any mass hysteria as reported. No one killed themselves thinking aliens were invading, the broadcast was only listened to by 2% of the US, and everyone was aware it was fake. It was a regular type of thing on this radio program.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/war-of-the-worlds/
TIL. I remember my history book one year in grade school mentioning that show and the hysteria it caused.
People thought the world was actually ending