On December 28, 1917, celebrated journalist and satirist H. L. Mencken published an article in the New York Evening Mail titled 'A Neglected Anniversary.'
Intended as a lighthearted distraction from the grim headlines of World War I, the piece claimed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the introduction of the modern bathtub in the United States. Mencken fabricated an extraordinarily detailed timeline: he alleged that Cincinnati grain merchant Adam Thompson installed the first American bathtub in 1842, made of mahogany and lead. He claimed that the medical establishment vigorously opposed the invention, declaring warm baths a dangerous hazard to public health that induced rheumatic fevers and lung ailments.
To make the story even richer, Mencken wrote that several cities banned winter bathing, and that President Millard Fillmore had courageously defied public panic by installing the first White House bathtub in 1850. Every single detail was completely made up. However, the American public and press swallowed the hoax whole.
Newspapers reprinted the story as genuine history, medical journals cited the health warnings, and historians incorporated the fake facts into textbooks. Realizing the monster he had created, Mencken published a full confession in 1926, admitting that the entire essay was a silly piece of spoofing. Yet, the confession did little to halt the myth.
Decades later, politicians, doctors, and even supreme court justices continued to cite Mencken's invented history as factual truth. The bathtub hoax remains a legendary testament to how easily plausible-sounding misinformation can entrench itself in popular memory.