What Were the Shark Attacks of 1916?

The panic-filled summer of 1916, when multiple deadly shark attacks shocked the nation, is chronicled in this gripping addition to the New York Times Best-Selling What Was? series.

On July 1, 1916, witnesses watched in horror as twenty-eight-year-old Charles Vansant was attacked and killed by a shark in shallow water off Beach Haven, New Jersey-the first recorded shark attack in American history. Scientists claimed a shark could not be responsible, but more deadly attacks soon followed along the Jersey Shore and up the freshwater Matawan Creek, setting off a nationwide panic that led the White House to declare a "War on Sharks." In this illustrated book, which features 16 pages of black-and-white photographs, readers will learn about the likely culprit (or culprits) in the attacks-the great white shark and the bull shark-and how the bloody summer of 1916 would change how people viewed sharks forever.