Description: “It was a dark and stormy night…” So begins the 1830 Bulwer-Lytton novel, Paul Clifford. 50 years earlier it was a dark, if not stormy at midday in parts of New England as a mysterious darkness fell over New England on the late morning of May 19th, 1780. Candles were brought out at lunchtime and churches were filled as many New Englanders thought that the Day of Judgement had arrived. Was it retribution for the disruptions of the American Revolution raging at the time of the darkening? Some Tories thought so. Was it a natural meteorological phenomenon, explicable in the terms of modern science or was there a more mundane explanation? Join historical weather researcher John Horrigan for a presentation about “New England's Dark Day” as he reveals the definitive explanation of one of the most strangest meteorological events in America’s History. He'll also present a chronology of dark days throughout world history, including New England's little known Dark Day of 1819 and Detroit's Dark Day of October 19th, 1762.
By early afternoon on the 19th of May in 1780, the sun was almost completely obscured.
The only known depiction of New England's Dark Day, taken from Our First Century by Richard Devens.
The mural of Connecticut State Council Member Abraham Davenport, who on the Dark Day said "I am against an adjournment. The day of judgment is either approaching, or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause of an adjournment: if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought."
Several towns throughout New England contributed important accounts of the "dark day".
It has been confirmed through the thorough examination of tree rings that a major forest fire raged through Ontario in the Spring of 1780 and was probably the contributing factor to "New England's Dark Day".
Recorded on July 22, 2008 at Watertown, Massachusetts. John reads about the "Phenomenon of 1819" when on November 8th of that year, a strange greenish tint in the skies over Montreal preceded an anamolous dark day. Time is 4 minutes and 24 seconds; 4 MB
Recorded on July 9, 2007 at Watertown, Massachusetts. John reads from David Ludlum's Vermont Weather Book about a strange darkness that enveloped the Vermont daylight from November 9th through the 11th in the year 1819. 4 minutes and 26 seconds; 4 MB
Recorded on May 26th, 2008 on the banks of the River Charles in Waltham, Massachusetts. John reads from Sidney Perley's Historic Storms of New England about an odd "dark day" that enveloped New England on Sunday, October 21st, 1716.