On July 2, 1937 an aircraft disappeared over the Pacific ocean. Speculation as to what happened to that aircraft has been the subject of public attention, and more than a thousand books, since. But, lost in all the discussion, is that there were two pioneering aviators aboard that Lockheed Electra that never made its scheduled landing at tiny Howland island, and arguably the one most important to the field of aviation has somehow become merely a footnote.
The “Great Sedition Trial” uncovered shocking connections at the time with the German reich that we were fighting, and challenged the idea that the nation was of a single mind during the war. It also challenged exactly how far the national commitment to freedom of speech and opinion reached, especially in extraordinary times.