This Day in the History of Hoaxes: June 1

June 1, 1997: Wear Sunscreen!
Mary Schmich published a humorous column in the Chicago Tribune on June 1 advising college grads that her best advice for the future was to "wear sunscreen." Two months later, the text of her column began circulating widely via email, but attributed to Kurt Vonnegut and said to be a commencement speech he had given at MIT. Even Vonnegut's wife reportedly received the hoax email and, believing it to actually be the work of her husband, forwarded it to family and friends. [about.com, Chicago Tribune]

June 1, 2007: De Grote Donorshow
The premise of the Dutch reality TV show De Grote Donorshow (The Big Donor Show) was that a terminally ill woman with an incurable brain tumor would decide which of 25 "contestants" in need of a kidney transplant would get to have her organ. Despite widespread condemnation, the show went ahead as planned, airing on June 1, 2007. But minutes before the end, the entire thing was revealed to be a hoax designed to publicize the urgent need for more organ donors. [wikipedia]
June 1, 2014: date a "chaos cloud" was supposed to destroy the earth. satire mistaken as news. published on Yahoo News in Sep 2005. see hoax master old/topics/news June 1, 1998: email threatens online "riot"

This Day in History

Posted on Sun Jun 01, 2014



Comments

Note on the Donorshow: the founder of the company that made that show had needed a kidney transplant himself, and died when it was rejected after a few years, so these people had (and still have) some strong and not unjustified feelings on this subject.
Posted by Richard Bos  on  Tue Jun 03, 2014  at  07:46 AM
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