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There are many thousands of videos online that begin with the line “hold my beer.” In fact, people often deliberately do dangerous things and pull truly mind-numbingly ill-conceived pranks just to get those all important “clicks” and become internet famous. But if you think that is all a trend of the digital age, well, no it isn’t. In fact, perhaps one of the most ambitious stunts held just to get attention occurred all the way back in 1896, and, as is often the case, it didn’t exactly go as planned.
The Sargo Class submarine USS Seawolf was one of the most active American submarines in the early war in the Pacific. Her extraordinary service was kept secret for operational reasons during the war, but would later be described to two reporters by her chief radioman, and published as a book in 1945.
On October first, 1910, Americans were shocked by an unimaginable act of violence, in the very heart of one of the nation’s largest cities. The 1910 Los Angeles Times bombing was a product of the times, and proof that political violence is not new to the United States.
In 1817 the Linnaean Society of New England published a thrilling report: they had investigated reports of a new sea creature, and after scrupulous examination they could declare that they had discovered not just a new species, but an entirely new genus native to the shores of the United States. They had identified and scientifically described, they claimed, a great sea monster.
