newspaper archives available

 For those who like to look through old newspapers for reports of cryptids and other strange stuff, now you can :

Headlines from 1811: Riots, cuts and a snake-eating cow

By Kathryn Westcott BBC News, Magazine

As four million pages of historical newspapers dating back three centuries go online, what were people preoccupied with 200 years ago in 1811?The British Library's online collection will be the largest collection of online papers and include titles from across the UK and Ireland. Most of those are local regional titles and a trawl through the archive from 200 years ago reveals a treasure trove of history. Rory Cellan-Jones reports on the largest collection of historical newspapers to be published online

One report in the Manchester Mercury would not appear too out of place in a tabloid newspaper today - although two centuries ago the potential for eye-catching headlines had not been fully explored. The newspaper reports on a curious case of a cow in a village near Hull which died of a mystery illness.

"The servant on opening her afterwards found a snake about a yard long with its head close by the cow's heart - half of the snake appeared in a state of mortification," the report reads.

Read rest here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15945306