The War of the Worlds (Radio Broadcast), Aftermath

A day after the broadcast, the newspapers reported about the ensuing panic, and of people fleeing the areas that were mentioned in the broadcast. At the time, many listeners were accustomed to accepting newsflashes as reliable, so many of them believed the fictional broadcast to be true. This incident created many urban legends of people rushing to “the scene of the events in New Jersey to see if they could catch a glimpse of the unfolding events, including a few astronomers from Princeton University who went looking for the meteorite that had supposedly fallen near their school. Some people, who had brought firearms, reportedly mistook a farmer's water tower for an alien spaceship and shot at it.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio)