This Day in History: 1938-10-30

After Nelson finished singing on the Halloween Eve broadcast of “Chase & Sanborn” and Dorothy Lamour came to the mike, those who flipped the radio channel about 12 minutes into the show were stunned to hear that Martians were invading Earth – as reported by Orson Welles. Apparently many of the late-comers to the “War of the Worlds” broadcast thought it was a real alien invasion and a brief nationwide panic ensued.