Windshield pitting and the madness of crowds

Great historical account of the Washington State "windshield pitting" epidemic of 1954 -- a mysterious rash of pitted windshields that were blamed on hooligans, nuclear waste, cosmic rays, and coal dust -- but turned out to just be a collective delusion, where reports of a windshield pitting epidemic caused people to notice the pits in their windshields that had always been there. Link Discuss (Thanks, Alan!)