Edmund Fitzgerald shipwreck goes viral on social media 50 years later

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This fall, trending topics have taken an unexpected turn. Instead of pumpkin spice lattes or football, the internet is talking about a decades-old shipwreck.

Social media has been packed with posts and theories about the 1975 sinking of the Great Lakes freighter the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. The massive cargo ship went down in a Lake Superior storm over five decades ago. All 29 crew members on board were killed. No bodies were ever recovered and to this day, no one knows for sure what caused it to sink.

A year later, singer Gordon Lightfoot turned the tragedy into his haunting song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," which climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Now, decades later, the story is back in the spotlight.

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