No doubt you’re familiar with the mass hysteria that resulted from Orson Welles’s radio version of War of the Worlds in 1938. Seattle had their case of collective delusion in 1954, but Seattle residents weren’t worried about an onslaught of Martians (or Germans). Instead, they were worried about windshields. Specifically, the pitting of windshields. That’s how we roll in Seattle.
The local papers had dozens of articles and photos over the span of several days relating to the epidemic and we’ll be posting some of them here. If you simply want more information on the whole matter though, jump to this historylink article, the wiki page, or scroll down to the “Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic, 1954” section on this Skeptical Inquirer page on mass delusions.
April 15th, 1954


