Talk about a scoop

The Virginian-Pilot tells how it broke the news of the Wright Brothers’ first successful attempt at powered flight. Even in 1903 the Wrights knew the value of manipulating the news: they wanted to give the exclusive to the paper back home in Dayton, Ohio, but a telegraph operator leaked it to the Virginian-Pilot.

Splashed across the width of The Virginian-Pilot?s front page, the Dec. 18 headline shouted, ?Flying machine soars 3 miles in teeth of high wind over sand hills and waves at Kitty Hawk on Carolina coast.?

I love that: “in teeth of high winds.” (link via Romenesko).

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