Three Centuries of Hoaxes In 1769, long before computers were invented, a man from Hungary built a wonderful machine that could play chess very well indeed. It delighted people all over Europe and beat nearly everyone it played. Many people believed that it was truly a thinking machine. However, other people thought it was a hoax. The secret of the machine was finally revealed in 1837. An article explained that there was a man, who carefully avoided being seen, inside the machine playing chess. On November 9, 1874,an article in an important New York newspaper claimed that all the animals in the New York Zoo had suddenly escaped and were running all over the city. It also said that there were 27 people dead and 200 harmed. It said the police were working to rescue people from the terrible situation. The entire city of New York was terrified, but there was really no reason to be frightened. The article was a cruel hoax from beginning to end. On April 21, 1980, the first woman to cross the finish line of the Boston Marathon was 23-year-old Rosie Ruiz. However, as she climbed the stairs to receive her prize, people started to become suspicious because she didn’t even seem to be out of breath. None of the other runners remembered seeing her, and her picture never appeared in photographs or TV broadcasts of the race. Later, several people revealed that they had seen her join the race near the very end. She had run only one half of a mile! Her prize was taken away, of course.