Is there life on Mars? By the dawn of the 20th century, that question had already been settled – at least for Madame Clara Goguet Guzman: of course there was. The real question was whether there was life elsewhere in the universe. And to answer that question, the Académie des Sciences in Paris announced the Guzman Prize on 17 December 1900.
Madame Guzman stumped up the 100,000 francs for the prize in memory of her son, Pierre, who rather fancied himself as an amateur astrologer. To win, all you had to do was prove you d had a chat with aliens. [The winner will be] the person of whatever nation who will find the means within the next ten years of communicating with a star (planet or otherwise) and of receiving a response.