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Mystery of Infamous 'New England Dark Day' Solved

earthobservatory.nasa.gov — At noon, it was black as night. It was May 19, 1780 and some people in New England thought judgment day was at hand. Accounts of that day, which became known as 'New England's Dark Day,' include mentions of midday meals by candlelight, night birds coming out to sing, flowers folding their petals, and strange behavior from animals.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 13, 2008

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  • HomerPimpson4, on 06/13/2008, -3/+52It was a fire, but we all know that witches were probably behind it.
  • fucknuggets, on 06/13/2008, -0/+47am i the only one who dint know about 'New England Dark Day'?
  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -5/+50Then we will fight in the shade.
  • Frost9999, on 06/13/2008, -3/+46spoiler: It was a fire. They figured it out from tree rings.
  • TheScogg, on 06/13/2008, -8/+46Dugg down for inaccuracy. A dragon ate the sun.
  • cruisinaruban, on 06/13/2008, -1/+35I think you're being dug down for using metric ***** instead of Imperial.
  • withoutamartyr, on 06/13/2008, -12/+43Was the hole ***** country of Canada on fire? Because to block out that much sun, that's got to be a metric ***** of smoke.
  • arkaycee, on 06/13/2008, -0/+17Yes, you were kept in the dark.
  • brownspank, on 06/13/2008, -1/+14Imperial would be '*****'.
  • adml_shake, on 06/13/2008, -2/+11Thats kinda cool, thats about the last thing I was expecting when I clicked on the link. I figured they were going to blame some long solar eclipse or something.
  • Angostura, on 06/13/2008, -1/+10I remember this oil refinery fire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Hertfordshire_Oi ...

    from 2005. I live in East London and it went dark; very day for an hour or so. Really quite amazing. And that was just a few oil storage tanks.
  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -0/+7I figured somebody was going to blame Bush
  • ep53, on 06/13/2008, -0/+7Thanks for that, 6 lines of text is way too much for my brain to handle....I just learnt long division a week ago...
  • proliance, on 06/13/2008, -0/+7"Damnit Canadians, keep your smoke to yourself."

    George Washington, 1780
  • gramophone, on 06/13/2008, -1/+8That was a bit of an anti-climax...
  • promovi, on 06/13/2008, -0/+6I just like that there is a Tree Ring Laboratory in the world: "Erin McMurry, research assistant in the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Tree Ring Laboratory"
  • LeRenard, on 06/13/2008, -0/+5If it had been in the upper atmosphere, no, especially if there were an inversion, which is what it sounds like.
  • NeoNevermore, on 06/13/2008, -1/+5"That's probably the fiercest dragon known to man"
  • Jibberwalk, on 06/13/2008, -2/+6That would work... if the 1700's were even remotely considered to be the Dark Ages... which they aren't.
  • gbjxc, on 06/13/2008, -0/+4Hm. I thought that was just the Big Dig blotting out the sun.
  • Genady, on 06/13/2008, -0/+3The one that lives in your garage?
  • LeRenard, on 06/13/2008, -0/+3How exactly can you have a solar eclipse that is more "long" than any other? You'd have to be superman..
  • RyeBrye, on 06/13/2008, -0/+3This would make for one of the most boring episodes of "Cold Case" ever.
  • insanebrain, on 06/13/2008, -0/+3Digg needs a new line-breaking routine.
  • datastorageguy, on 06/13/2008, -2/+5lol'd due to unexpected reference.

  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -0/+3Do you *really* want a cure for cancer? That didnt turn out so well in I am Legend.
  • publiclurker, on 06/13/2008, -0/+3Nope, he seems sane to me.
  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -2/+5A fire massive enough to have produced smoke thick enough to have bloated out the sun.

    Wouldn't somebody have noted the smell? We've had range fires 50-100 miles downwind and you can always smell it.
  • Jegzzy, on 06/13/2008, -2/+4Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
  • jamesmcm, on 06/13/2008, -1/+3That's what she said...
  • LeRenard, on 06/13/2008, -0/+2I think you greatly over-estimate the size of New England..
  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -1/+3if only they werent so flammable
  • ep53, on 06/13/2008, -0/+2The explosion was heard on the shores of Holland. Im in Central London and the noise woke me up...
  • arkaycee, on 06/13/2008, -0/+2This bodes well for science nerds everywhere ... there has to be SOME geeky thing no one yet has a laboratory for.
  • LeRenard, on 06/13/2008, -0/+2Amazing, I live in the area they list as being the most effected, but I'd never heard of this before.
  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -1/+2Blame Canada!
  • theoodone, on 06/14/2008, -0/+1they didn't
  • sering, on 11/30/2008, -0/+1http://greatcar.freehostia.com
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  • mysedai, on 06/13/2008, -1/+2Buried!
  • arkaycee, on 06/13/2008, -0/+1Naw, it would literally be old news if it were an eclipse. I think certainly by the year 1900, solar eclipses for a few hundred years either way were plotted quite accurately (viz. Mark Twain, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"), and there are some general patterns that mean they can be predicted even roughly for much further forward and back (see, for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saros_cycle ).
  • fnordy, on 06/14/2008, -0/+1Sorry, Wicca didn't exist back then, as Gardner created Wicca in the 1940s-1950s.

    Blessed Be.

  • JakeyG14, on 06/13/2008, -0/+1So you say...(wait for it)..."you're in the dark"? hahaha

    *grabs shovel*
  • tomlasusa, on 06/13/2008, -0/+1datastorageguy,

    Phone call my friend. It's the kettle. Says something about you being black?
  • GavinZac, on 06/15/2008, -0/+1tomlasusa,

    phone call for you, its the cliche police, says OMG STFU TARD
  • ahhell, on 06/13/2008, -2/+3That would be madness.
  • inactive, on 06/13/2008, -0/+1This is not a new discovery. It's been known for quite some time that it was caused by forest fires from New Hampshire to New York.

    http://www.almanac.com/question/oneanswer.php?ques ...

    The link is from the 2008 Farmer's Almanac but the answer was originally printed in the 1968 Farmer's Almanac.
  • WITFITS, on 06/13/2008, -0/+1So it wasn't Persian arrows?
  • MCMLXXXII, on 06/13/2008, -0/+1FTA: "In the midst of the Revolutionary War, Gen. George Washington noted the dark day in his diary while he was in New Jersey."
    He Then told his troops "Then we will fight in the Shade!"
  • Ogopogo, on 06/14/2008, -0/+1So what are Seventh Day Adventists supposed to believe about the infalibility of their doctrines now?

    See: http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=adventist+%22d ...
  • LeRenard, on 06/13/2008, -0/+1I can't decide whether to dig you up, or dig you down because "Central Artery" would have made more sense.
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