Early V-J Day News Flash Hoax, 12 August 1945

On August 12th, 1945, The United Press sent out a news flash to their wire affiliates, announcing that Japan had finalized their surrender, ending WWII. Unfortunately, they were two days early. The "flash" appeared to originate from the UP's Washington bureau and was sent on their Southern wire branch at 9:34pm: "Flash--Washington--Japan accepts surrender terms of Allies."

Within two minutes, Washington responded that they were not the source of the wire, resulting in a followup "hold" message sent at 9:36pm, and the UP released a 'kill' to cancel the erroneous news flash at 9:40pm. Because Japan's surrender was heavily anticipated, many news outlets were monitoring the wires closely, and as soon as the announcement was received the news was broadcast over the radio in cities around the United States. The rejoicing was stifled quickly, and was put into storage for two days later.

The United Press leased their telegraph lines from American Telephone and Telegraph, and the two immediately began researching the source of the release. On the 14th of August, AT&T released their official response, stating that their analysis showed that the erroneous press release was transmitted via an automated paper-tape teletype machine. None of AT&T's 12 stations on that telegraph line were capable of transmitting data from a perforated paper tape.