Advent Calendar December 17th

Expect the Unexpected

On December 17th 1900 the Académie des Sciences in Paris announced that Madame Clara Goguet Guzman would award 100,000 francs to anyone who could prove that they had communicated with aliens from another planet or star and received a reply. (Mars was excluded as that was clearly too easy.)

Image credit:
Illustration from La guerre des mondes by H.G. Wells, Belgian edition published 1906