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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.

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  • Dylson, on 06/13/2008, -54/+1FIRST!
  • RevinKoze, on 06/13/2008, -44/+4I had sex with a tree once...Can they tell that from their ***** liberal tree readings?
  • Frost9999, on 06/13/2008, -3/+46spoiler: It was a fire. They figured it out from tree rings.
    • unreg, 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.
      • 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.
      • BigManOnCampus, on 06/13/2008, -1/+1Maybe, but back then people were probably more willing to fly on their paranoia than realize the obvious.
    • 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...
    • cdahlkvist, 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.
  • withoutamartyr, on 06/13/2008, -12/+44Was the hole ***** country of Canada on fire? Because to block out that much sun, that's got to be a metric ***** of smoke.
    • withoutamartyr, on 06/13/2008, -8/+1Three cheers for a broken Edit system
    • cruisinaruban, on 06/13/2008, -1/+35I think you're being dug down for using metric ***** instead of Imperial.
    • 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.
      • 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...
    • LeRenard, on 06/13/2008, -0/+2I think you greatly over-estimate the size of New England..
  • HomerPimpson4, on 06/13/2008, -3/+52It was a fire, but we all know that witches were probably behind it.
    • trixterIreland, on 06/13/2008, -1/+3if only they werent so flammable
    • fnordy, on 06/14/2008, -0/+1Sorry, Wicca didn't exist back then, as Gardner created Wicca in the 1940s-1950s.

      Blessed Be.

  • TheScogg, on 06/13/2008, -8/+46Dugg down for inaccuracy. A dragon ate the sun.
    • Genady, on 06/13/2008, -0/+3The one that lives in your garage?
    • NeoNevermore, on 06/13/2008, -1/+5"That's probably the fiercest dragon known to man"
  • 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.
    • unreg, on 06/13/2008, -0/+7I figured somebody was going to blame Bush
    • 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 ).
    • 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..
  • banido, on 06/13/2008, -5/+50Then we will fight in the shade.
  • tomlasusa, on 06/13/2008, -17/+11It was clearly the Rapture. So they all prayed really, really, really, really, really, really hard and the Almighty decided to push things off by a few centuries.

    But only if they agreed that everyone in the country would become christian. THAT'S why the religious right has been workin' SO hard all these years.
    • datastorageguy, on 06/13/2008, -3/+2Does your brain function on any other wavelength besides bitching about the religious right, bush, cheney, big oil, obama is your god?
  • ortucis, on 06/13/2008, -8/+2There was a 'New England Dark Day'? They solved the mystery you say? Atleast I don't care.
  • archivist, on 06/13/2008, -12/+5it was the dark ages, why was everyone surprised?

    /yey, puns
    • 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.
      • mysedai, on 06/13/2008, -3/+2Little early for your sense of humor to be in working order? ;)
  • monarch00, on 06/13/2008, -9/+4Am I the only one who thought this article would reference the New York Giants?
    • mithrasinvictus, on 06/13/2008, -3/+1Am i the only one who finds this speculation irrelevant?
  • fucknuggets, on 06/13/2008, -0/+47am i the only one who dint know about 'New England Dark Day'?
  • gramophone, on 06/13/2008, -1/+8That was a bit of an anti-climax...
  • pudgyv, on 06/13/2008, -7/+1That's interesting but a cure for cancer would be more useful.
    • trixterIreland, on 06/13/2008, -0/+3Do you *really* want a cure for cancer? That didnt turn out so well in I am Legend.
  • gbjxc, on 06/13/2008, -0/+4Hm. I thought that was just the Big Dig blotting out the sun.
    • 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.
    • datastorageguy, on 06/13/2008, -1/+1Ted Kennedy's ass.
  • fatas, on 06/13/2008, -9/+6even back then most Americans were stupid
    • laserviking, on 06/13/2008, -2/+2*high five*
    • datastorageguy, on 06/13/2008, -3/+1Hey when your country can put a man in space and on the moon, then talk.
      • GiggleStick, on 06/13/2008, -1/+1Could fatas be Russian? That would be awesome since they of course beat the US into space (though they cheated.) American bashing is lame though

        (They cheated because Yuri Gagarin bailed out of the capsule before it landed because they didn't think that he could survive impact. They didn't disclose this at the time, and the "official rules" were that you had to land in the actual craft.)
  • 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"
    • 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.
  • proliance, on 06/13/2008, -0/+7"Damnit Canadians, keep your smoke to yourself."

    George Washington, 1780
  • 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.
    • JakeyG14, on 06/13/2008, -0/+1So you say...(wait for it)..."you're in the dark"? hahaha

      *grabs shovel*
  • serif69, on 06/13/2008, -3/+2I can't believe the digg comments have made it this far without a racist remark...
  • RyeBrye, on 06/13/2008, -0/+3This would make for one of the most boring episodes of "Cold Case" ever.
  • Blitzwing84, on 06/13/2008, -1/+2Blame Canada!
  • chickenbandit, on 06/13/2008, -2/+1New Englanders will use any excuse to declare judgment day.
  • oldman, on 06/13/2008, -3/+1They couldn't smell the smoke? Wood burning is very distinct, or maybe they were all just so used to it?
  • masch57, on 06/13/2008, -0/+1We had a "dark day" in some parts of Washington state on May 18, 1980. It was caused by the ash cloud from the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Giant purple clouds rolled in mid morning and eventually the horizon shut down to a eerie, small crack of light, and then even that was gone and it was blacker than any night.
  • 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
  • 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!"
  • Oysterchild, on 06/14/2008, -0/+0I would have thought an eclipse or something....
  • 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 ...
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