History's Greatest Hoaxes

A dubious producer based in London convinced large parts of the UFO-hungry public a film of an autopsy being performed on a dead alien was authentic.

In the 1980’s, one of the most extraordinary discoveries of the 20th century was made – the personal diary of none other than Adolf Hitler. It caused a sensation.

An inadvertent hoax perhaps? Or a very clever ploy that made an unknown 23 year old New York City radio producer famous overnight?

The best-selling book by Henry Charrierre, which told of his life on the Penal colony island of French Guiana was ‘exposed’ as a novel, not a biography, in 1970.

The quest to conclusively connect man and ape appeared to come to an end in year 1912 with the discovery of a skull and jawbone in a quarry near the village of Piltdown in Sussex.

In 2011, a body was discovered around 08:45 BST by an elderly couple lying in an alleyway between two houses.