America's First 'Viral' Post Was Published on This Day in 1776, When Thomas Paine's 'Common Sense' [January 10, 1776]

It was Philadelphia in the winter of 1776. In the few years prior, the colonies' faraway owner, Britain, had imposed taxation without representation and the so-called Intolerable Acts; colonists had convened at two Continental Congresses; and British and American troops had battled for the first time at Bunker Hill.

Revolutionary sentiment had been brewing throughout the American colonies for some time and was near boiling in the Northeast. Still, many colonists had not seriously considered separating from the mother country—until a history-making pamphlet was published in the City of Brotherly Love on January 10, 1776.

Thomas Paine's Common Sense, "addressed to the inhabitants of America," was a 47-page dynamo presenting the recently immigrated Englishman's clear case for America's independence from Britain. Paine's words flew off the shelves, selling tens of thousands of copies within weeks.

The text has been called America's first viral communications event: Its content gripped and inspired Americans, who loudly read it aloud on the street and in bars, spreading Paine's message.

In short, Paine's argument was that given Britain's tyrannical rule, the only way forward for the American colonies was to become an independent country. He tore down the idea of monarchy, questioning the legitimacy of kings like George III, who, like all other British kings, was seen as divinely ordained to rule.

"The divine right of kings is a lie; monarchy runs against God's plans," Paine wrote. "For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others for ever."