In 1938, Orson Welles read a radio drama based on the 1898 novel The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. The main theme of the novel (as well as the radio drama) was of an alien invasion by Martians. With people in panic over World War II, some listened to the drama during the middle of it and thought it was actual news broadcast. There was mass panic in the United States and Canada, until everyone was told the full-story.