The modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster is born when a sighting makes
local news on May 2, 1933. The newspaper Inverness Courier relates an
account of a local couple who claim to have seen “an enormous animal
rolling and plunging on the surface.” The story of the “monster” (a moniker
chosen by the Courier editor) becomes a media phenomenon, with London newspapers sending correspondents to Scotland and a circus offering a
20,000 pound sterling reward for capture of the beast.

After the April 1933 sighting was reported in the newspaper on May 2,
interest steadily grew, especially after another couple claimed to have
seen the animal on land.

Amateur investigators have for decades kept an almost constant vigil,
and in the 1960s several British universities launched sonar expeditions
to the lake. Nothing conclusive was found, but in each expedition the
sonar operators detected some type of large, moving underwater
objects.

A plesiosaur and mosasaur.  An illustration from a 1908 "Outing
magazine" article.

U.S. Pres. Jimmy Carter (seated left) and Soviet General Secretary
Leonid Brezhnev signing the SALT II treaty in Vienna, June 18,
1979.

On January 2, 1980, in a strong reaction to the December 1979 Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan, President Jimmy Carter asks the Senate to
postpone action on the SALT II nuclear weapons treaty and recalls
the U.S. ambassador to Moscow. These actions sent a message that
the age of détente and the friendlier diplomatic and economic relations
that were established between the United States and Soviet Union
during President Richard Nixon’s administration (1969-74) had ended.

Carter feared that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, in which an
estimated 30,000 combat troops entered that nation and established
a puppet government, would threaten the stability of neighboring 
strategic countries such as Iran and Pakistan and could lead to the
USSR gaining control over much of the world’s oil supplies. The
Soviet actions were labeled “a serious threat to peace” by the
White House.

President Jimmy Carter and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev shake hands after signing the SALT II Treaty.

The modern legend of the Loch Ness Monster was born when a
sighting makes local news on May 2, 1933. The Scottish newspaper
Inverness Courier relates an account of a local couple who claim to
have seen "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface”
of Loch Ness, a large freshwater lake near Inverness, Scotland.

Revelations in 1994 that the famous 1934 photo (above) was a
complete hoax has only slightly dampened the enthusiasm of
tourists and investigators for the legendary beast of Loch Ness.