“The War of the Worlds” is an episode of the American radio drama anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air, directed and narrated by Orson Welles

It was broadcasted live as a halloween special at 8pm on Sunday 30 October 1938 by CBS Radio.

The radio episode became famous after brining listeners into panic due to a range of realistic live reports about a supposed alien invasion, this radio drama may have been the start of fake news.