  A long-lasting belief is that the gravitational stress by the moon would be
responsible for earthquakes because of causing a tidal deformation of Earth's
crust. Even worse, earthquakes are sometimes said to be correlated with
eclipses. We review the origin of this wrong statement and show that the idea
is owed to a fallacious perception of coincidence. In ancient times the two
catastrophes were linked interpreting the announcement of Doomsday, while in
modern times a quasi-scientific essay disseminated such an interrelation
shortly before the theory of tectonics.
