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Proof: In 1895, lightning ignited a West Virginia gas well; flames soared 200 feet as crowds watched

The record — the exact bytes that were hashed

{"first_seen":"2026-09-08T05:10:40Z","headline":"In 1895, lightning ignited a West Virginia gas well; flames soared 200 feet as crowds watched","kind":"front-page-headline","rank":1,"source":"timesofindia","url":"https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/in-1895-lightning-ignited-a-massive-west-virginia-gas-well-sending-flames-200-feet-into-the-sky-as-crowds-gathered-to-witness-one-of-americas-most-extraordinary-fires/articleshow/133865230.cms","v":1}

Download headline-7b33a4054d9b.json

SHA-256

7b33a4054d9bc27459a1ee09e4f544bb1a0c8d85c1422890b905fa26cc6ade88

OpenTimestamps

Not sealed.

Wayback Machine

• The record pageNot sealed — no capture of this page was requested.
• The story pageNot sealed — no capture of the story page was requested.

Check it yourself — none of this needs this site

1. Hash the record: sha256sum headline-7b33a4054d9b.json prints 7b33a4054d9bc27459a1ee09e4f544bb1a0c8d85c1422890b905fa26cc6ade88. Its first twelve characters are the end of this record's address.
2. There is no OpenTimestamps receipt for this record yet.
3. Open the Wayback Machine's captures above: the capture of the record page shows this hash as it stood then, and the capture of the story page shows the newsroom's own page.

This headline has not been sealed. Headlines are sealed automatically within minutes of first being seen; older ones are sealed on request, and are then marked as a backfill.