Long before Ashton Kutcher began punking celebrities, a talented young actor with a wicked sense of humor pulled off one of the biggest pranks in American history.

Oct. 30, 2008, marked the 70th anniversary of Orson Welles’ legendary radio broadcast of "The War of the Worlds," which sparked a nationwide panic, causing many Americans to believe an actual Martian invasion was under way.

Directed and narrated by Welles, the hour-long broadcast aired Oct. 30, 1938, as a Halloween-themed episode of CBS’ radio series,Mercury Theatre on the Air.

The performance was an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds, and was delivered in such a ways as to simulate a live news report of a Martian invasion.

The faux newscast (audio embedded below) included accounts of a meteorite landing in New Jersey, followed by descriptions of tentacled aliens emerging from spaceships, brandishing and firing weapons at humans. The broadcast caused some people to flee their homes, and telephone lines flooded with listeners trying to determine the validity of the Martian invasion.

The spectacle catapulted Welles to instant fame (and perhaps some notoriety) and is considered to have established modern radio as an artistic medium.

To commemorate the historic broadcast, students at Ball State University planned a re-creation of it Oct. 30, 2008, on Indiana Public Radio — but with a clearly stated preamble designed to prevent the kind of chaos that erupted long ago.

The original, uninterrupted broadcast is available in its entirety online.