History of The Famous Martian Canals!

Here is a nice article that sumarizes the historical developments that lead to the rise and fall of the famous Martian Canal theory. It all began in 1877 with famed astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli's announcement that he has seen "canali" on Mars. Everyone interpereted Schiaparelli's language of "canali" to mean "canal" and thus gave rise to the belief that there must be or have been intelligent extraterrestrial life on mars at one point to build such canals. However as time went on further developments in the astronomical field with respect to Mars proved there not to be artificially constructed canals on Mars. This caused the reexamination of Schiaparelli's initial claims and everyone realized that there was a mistranslation of his use of the word "canali". If translated correctly, Shiaparelli's announcement would have meant "channels". Myth: Busted!

http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mystique/history/1800.html