The bathtub hoax was a famous hoax perpetrated by the American journalist H. L. Mencken involving the publication of a fictitious history of the bathtub.
The article claimed that the bathtub had been invented by Lord John Russell of England in 1828, and that Cincinnatian Adam Thompson became acquainted with it during business trips there in the 1830s.
Mencken grew concerned of people taking his article seriously, comparing it in acceptance to the Norman conquest.
The article was entirely false but was still being widely quoted as fact for years, even as recently as January 2008 when a Kia TV ad referenced the story with no mention of its fictional nature.
