Much as the word Edsel has become synonymous with lemon, Piltdown has become synonymous with fraud. Between 1911 and 1915, researcher Charles Dawson found fragments of a cranium, a tooth and some tools in a gravel deposit in Piltdown,
Sussex, England. The scientific world was agog with the findings — anthropolists believed that the fossilized remains of an ancient hominid had been discovered, a missing link between ape and man. It took 40 years for the discovery to be scientifically disproved. On this date in 1953, the Piltdown Man was declared a fake.
Quote: "Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it." — Samuel Johnson
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