Timeline of Martian science and lore

Mars has given off a lot of false impressions over the years. So here is a timeline to look at the way these fallacies have progressed over time.

1698: Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens publishes Cosmotheros, one of the first publications to speculate about intelligent extraterrestrials.

1784: Sir William Herschel writes that dark areas on Mars are oceans and the lighter areas are land. He speculates that Mars is inhabited by intelligent beings who "probably enjoy a situation similar to our own."

1854: William Whewell concludes Mars has seas of green and land of red, and wonders if there is extraterrestrial life.

1858: Angelo Secchi, a Jesuit monk, draws Mars and calls Syrtis Major the "Atlantic Canal." He later writes that he was persuaded by the example of Earth that the "universe is a wonderful organism filled with life."

1860: Emmanuel Liais suggests that dark regions are not seas, but rather are vegetation tracts.

1867: British astronomer Richard Anthony Proctor publishes a map of Mars with continents and oceans.

1873: French astronomer Camille Flammarion attributes Mars' reddish color to vegetation.

1877: Giovanni Schiaparelli uses the term "canali," meaning channels, to describe streakson the surface of Mars. The term is translated to "canal" in English.

1894: Percival Lowell begins observing Mars at his observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. The next year he publishes "Mars," with drawings of the canals and speculation about their artificial origin.

1898: Inspired by Lowell's ideas, English writer H.G. Wells publishes "The War of the Worlds," a novel about a deadly invasion of Earth by Martians.

1908: Lowell writes "Mars as the Abode of Life," presenting his full theory that canals were built by smart folks.

1921: Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of the wireless, claims to hear signals that might be Martian. The next year and again in 1924 -- at times when Mars is relatively close -- radio stations observe silence, at the request of the U.S. government, so Mars transmissions can be heard.

1938: Orson Welles' Halloween radio broadcast of the fictional War of the Worlds, based on the H.G. Wells book, fires fear among thousands of Americans that Martians had landed in New Jersey.
2003: Mars comes closer to Earth, by a smidgen, than ever in recorded history. Rumors float around the Internet that the event will cause doom and destruction on Earth.

2005: Discoveries of submerged icebergs and atmospheric methane refuel speculation of microbial life.

2005: A hoax circulates the Internet, stating that Mars will be as big as the full Moon, proving that some things never change