On This Day in Weird, August 18...
1590: Newly arriving settlers find the British colony on
Roanoke Island (off the coast of present-day North Carolina) inexplicably
deserted. No trace of the settlement's 90 men, 17 women, and 11 children is
ever found. The missing colonists leave only one cryptic clue: the word
"Croatoan" carved on a tree trunk.
1817: In response to sea-serpent sightings off Gloucester,
Massachusetts, the Linnaean Society of New England forms a special committee to
"collect evidence with regard to the existence and appearance of any such
animal." Subsequent capture of a deformed blacksnake embarrasses the
panel, when they leap to an erroneous conclusion, dubbing the reptile an infant
specimen the much larger Scoliophis atlanticus ("Atlantic
hump-backed snake").
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