Famous Hoaxes That People Still Believe
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Famous Hoaxes That People Still Believe — Daily trivia Tuesday, March 17, 2026: questions and answers
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Q 01What have scientific studies actually shown about goldfish memory, popularly thought to last seconds?
- AIt lasts about 30 seconds
- BIt can last weeks or even months
- CIt lasts exactly 7 seconds
- DIt lasts about 3 seconds
Show answer
It can last weeks or even months
The "3-second memory" claim is a complete myth. Scientific experiments have shown goldfish can remember learned tasks for weeks and even months, can be trained to push levers, and can recognize their owners.
Q 02The 1934 "Surgeon's Photograph" of a lake monster was revealed in 1994 to actually show what?
- AA floating log with branches
- BA rubber inflatable
- CA swimming otter
- DA toy submarine with a sculpted head
Show answer
A toy submarine with a sculpted head
The 1934 Loch Ness photograph was credited to London gynaecologist Robert Kenneth Wilson but was staged by big-game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell in revenge for the Daily Mail ridiculing his faked Nessie footprints. Christian Spurling admitted in January 1991 that the monster was a toy submarine he had built, its head and neck moulded from wood putty; since 1994 the picture has been generally accepted as a fake.
Q 03What had two Southampton men confessed in 1991 to making over 200 of, using planks and rope?
- ACrop circles
- BFairy rings in forests
- CStone circle replicas
- DFake archaeological sites
Show answer
Crop circles
Doug Bower and Dave Chorley revealed they had been creating crop circles since 1978. To prove it, they made one in front of journalists; a "cereologist" declared it authentic before learning it was a hoax.
Q 04Which persistent myth about a famous leader is British cartoonist James Gillray largely credited with creating?
- AThat Queen Victoria never smiled
- BThat King Henry VIII had six fingers
- CThat Napoleon Bonaparte was unusually short
- DThat Julius Caesar was bald
Show answer
That Napoleon Bonaparte was unusually short
Gillray's widely circulated caricatures portrayed Napoleon as unusually short, and Napoleon reportedly said they "did more than all the armies of Europe to bring me down." The image stuck, and the myth of a tiny Napoleon long outlived him.
Q 05What were the 1917 photographs faked by two Yorkshire cousins that fooled Arthur Conan Doyle called?
- AThe Yorkshire Spirits
- BThe Leeds Apparitions
- CThe Bradford Phantoms
- DThe Cottingley Fairies
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The Cottingley Fairies
Elsie Wright, 16, and her nine-year-old cousin Frances Griffiths took the first photographs at Cottingley, near Bradford, in 1917. Elsie copied dancing fairies by Claude Shepperson from Princess Mary's Gift Book, cut the figures from cardboard and propped them up with hatpins. Arthur Conan Doyle championed them in The Strand Magazine at Christmas 1920.
Q 06Why did newspapers deliberately play up the panic over the 1938 'War of the Worlds' broadcast?
- ARadio had been siphoning advertising revenue away from print
- BEditors were lobbying Congress to break up the radio networks
- CNewspapers had been refused the rights to serialise the novel
- DOrson Welles had publicly ridiculed newspaper reporters
Show answer
Radio had been siphoning advertising revenue away from print
W. Joseph Campbell concluded that "the panic and mass hysteria so readily associated with 'The War of the Worlds' did not occur on anything approaching a nationwide dimension." Radio had drawn advertising money away from print during the Depression, so newspapers used Welles's programme to discredit radio as a news source.
Q 07What did the US Air Force's 1994 report say the 1947 Roswell debris really was?
- AAn experimental aircraft prototype
- BA Project Mogul surveillance balloon
- CA Soviet spy satellite
- DA crashed V-2 rocket from White Sands
Show answer
A Project Mogul surveillance balloon
The 1994 USAF report confirmed the debris came from a balloon train launched as part of Project Mogul, a top-secret program using high-altitude microphones to detect Soviet nuclear tests. The original weather balloon story was itself a cover for the classified program.
Q 08What was the 1869 hoax in which George Hull buried a 10-foot gypsum statue on a New York farm called?
- AThe Petrified Giant of Rochester
- BThe Syracuse Colossus
- CThe Cardiff Giant
- DThe Albany Stone Man
Show answer
The Cardiff Giant
The Cardiff Giant was created after Hull lost an argument about Genesis 6:4 ("there were giants in the earth"). He spent $2,600 to have the statue carved and buried, then arranged for workers to "discover" it nearly a year later.
Q 09Which Chinese astronaut in 2003 debunked the claim that the Great Wall is visible from space?
- AYang Liwei
- BNie Haisheng
- CJing Haipeng
- DZhai Zhigang
Show answer
Yang Liwei
Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut, confirmed after his spaceflight that the Great Wall was not visible from orbit. The myth dates back to at least 1754, long before anyone had actually been to space.
Q 10The preface of which influential 1936 self-help book popularised the myth that humans use only 10% of their brains?
- AThink and Grow Rich
- BHow to Win Friends and Influence People
- CThe Power of Positive Thinking
- DAs a Man Thinketh
Show answer
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Lowell Thomas misattributed the 10% brain claim to psychologist William James in his preface to Dale Carnegie's bestseller. James had actually said we don't always feel fully energized — not that we only use 10% of our brain.
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