New England's "Dark Day." May 19, 1780
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- Опубліковано 26 вер 2024
- On May 19, 1780, Historian Thomas Campanella explains, “A preternatural gloom settled upon the New England landscape, and by noon the sun had been all but blotted from the sky.” New England’s “Dark Day” was read as an omen, even, perhaps, as the biblical end of days. But the question has persisted for nearly two and a half centuries- what could have blotted out the Sun?
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First video. Totally subscribed. Love the presentation, especially as someone from CT lol , keep up the great work =D
So you're not going to tell us what caused the phenomenon? Smh
Shortly into this episode I thought, "that sounds a lot like a forest fire in Canada." I grew up in Massachusetts and lived in Melrose (a city north of Boston) for a few years. One day about 10 years ago I came outside and thought there was a fire in downtown Melrose because it was SO smokey and hazy. No, there was a fire in Canada somewhere above the Great Lakes region! Truly amazing how much land must've been burning to produce enough smoke to make my clothes smell like I'd been at a campfire.
Happened here in Pinellas Co, FL. The fires were far north of us, but the smoke moved in early in the morning and I could smell burning. I went outside and could see smoke at the street level, and the sky was dim. The fires were more than a hundred miles away, but the winds carried them to us while feeding the fire.
There have been recent wildfires to the north of us in Canada that produce smoke and haze here in Minnesota, hundred of miles away. It's been ongoing for days, depending on the wind. We've had to keep the windows closed at times, as the smell of smoke is so strong.
My mother grew up in a house on Hillcrest off Upham on the east side. It was my grandma's home for 67 years.
I'm in Rhode island. Today, May 30, 2023, smoke from the Tantallon Fire in Nova Scotia has blocked out the sun. It's way cooler than normal and the smell of smoke is thick in the air. You can SEE it moving in, like a fog bank only higher in the atmosphere. I can barely see across the Seekonk River now, which is very narrow. It started as a bright, late spring day. Now it's a mucky gray day.
@@jabbermocky4520 There are bigger fires burning near Shelbourne NS and St Andrews in NB - both closer to you. And I am sure there are fires in Maine. But yeah smoke travels far.
As a New Yorker who experienced the ominous looking skies over the city two days ago along with the hazardous air caused by wildfires in Canada, I think I understand what New Englanders were experiencing in 1780.
You're a New Yorker? My condolences.
@@deemikait depends if he’s from state or city.
State can be very beautiful.
City?
Meh..not so much.
I’ll never understand how people can choose concrete over nature.
Something must be fundamentally wrong with them..
@@rolux4853 it's not just the city that suffers.... Even western NY, for all it's beauty, suffers from the tyranny of Albany.
@@rolux4853 Agreed!
@@deemikanew york’s great.
there’s something to do at almost any hour… you can’t get bored enough in new york to post stupid bullsh*t like sending someone condolences for wherever they live.
What a timely video. Given the huge forest fires in western Canada, people here in eastern Ontario have been experiencing red suns and hazy dull days for the past two weeks. Not on the same scale as 1780 but still a reminder how events in one place can have huge effects in others. Thank you.
Central Minnesota, here.
We've had just the tiniest bit of haze, just enough to notice during the day, and reddish sunrises/sunsets.
Yes we've experienced a strange haze on a couple of cloudless days here in lower Michigan too. It has cleared up now. My sympathies to the folks up north.
@@faithyourfear6401 Lower Michigan? Oof. That's where my ex is from. (and has since moved back to. good riddance, ya C U Next Tuesday!)
We had a bit of haze in northwestern Ontario from the Alberta fires, but not very much
Now in NY and the Northeast US
My great great .... whatever grandmother wrote of this in her journal. It was bad, they were worried about food and man's sinful behavior :). She was the third generation, her journal was one of the more interesting ones. She was dramatic and into damnnation. I always remembered her stories.
My mom used to read from the journals sometimes at night when we were up there (NH) as kids. It was the 70s people did stuff like that then.
You should publish them, sir! Have them added to a historic registry maybe, New England's history is fascinating.
New Hampshire is still a place of dark forests and among the ancient twisted trees roam monsters, serpents and the spirits of the dead.
My great great grandfather who emigrated in 1870 from County Mayo was named John Patrick Moran! 😊
@@johncasey1020 you think that’s bad I’m from Cleveland 😂
Thank you for your contribution to this vid
Stories of dark days has filtered down through my family. 2 branches of my family had settled New England many years before the pilgrims. I love it when something matches up with what I heard as a child.
That’s very cool.
a few of my relatives were in North America thousands of years before the Europeans came and destroyed it and murdered most of the native inhabitants
A few weeks of celibacy would make anyone shake!
Shadowace . What was their origin as I am curious of settlers before the pilgrims. I grew up not far away from Plymouth rock and thinks that it is history that deserves to be remembered. Thanks
@@327JohnnySS Part of the family were fishermen that came from Scotland, I have less info on the English side, though I would imagine they immigrated for the same reason.
Literally living through this right now in NJ from Canadian forest fires. It’s crazy. It’s like dusk at noon.
Sorry about that but we're doing the best we can to get it under control, It's been a rough summer.
Back in 1970 when I was stationed at the San Diego Naval Station there was a huge brush fire in the surrounding hills that darken the sky a deep orange for days. It was very eerie. I could see how some back then would think it was the end times.
That was the Harbison Canyon fire. I was seven, and remember it well. Ash fell all over Pacific Beach, and we rode our bikes through it like snow!
@@johnpolhamus9041
I forgot about the ashes. When it was over we had to do a lot of sweeping.
Great memories - crazy I was a 6 year old in 1970 in San Diego & remember it also, it was kinda scary & dominated the headlines.
Plus we were in La Mesa / El Cajon / Fletcher Hills area so quite close to this massive fire.
Brush fires are all a part of So Cal life, right ?
For San Diegans stuff like this, the Crest Fire & PSA 182 Crash were "watershed" events you always remember.
The same happened when I was at NAS North Island in 2003. There were huge wildfires in north San Diego County and one afternoon the smoke was so thick it almost looked like the sun had gone down. A Navy PH took a great series of pictures of the USS Stennis pulling out of NASNI in the gloom. Even though you can tell the sun is well above the Point Loma hills, it is so dark that Stennis and her helos had their navigation lights on. Stennis even had the numbers on her island lit. This is a link to the image on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/134160831@N07/23576197753/
@@dgax65 I was there in 2003, and it freaked me out! I had gone out the night before and was sleeping in. I kept waking up and thinking, “It’s still dark out there, so it must still be early.”
I finally sat up and looked at my clock. It was 11:30 and still dark. I looked out the window and saw no sign of life, no birds, no people, no cars, and for a split second, I thought something very bad might have happened.
That was so awful. I worked at a Red Cross station, and saw too many people in shock who had lost their homes.
Abraham Davenport is the sort of politician we need.
Dead ????
@@rhuephus Not sure that stops them. Pretty sure Feinstein's a zombie.
He sure was no golfer!
@@RevQuads who cares if they golf as long as they lead and not mumble and stay in a basement.
They dont make them like that anymore.
Politicians with honor, I mean.
"Red sky at night, sailors delight; red sky in morning, sailors take warning". The coastal sailors of New England must have been confused, perhaps terrified....
It's Red Sky at night. It's about the clouds.👍
@@walterdebnam8021 , that's what happens when insomnia strikes. I'll fix it. It was a rough night.....
@Aqua Fyre, geologist Simon Winchesters' book about Krakatoa was an excellent read.
So this is a coastal New England saying? This explains much. The saying never made sense to me, but I was raised nearer the Pacific coast.
We say shepherds delight … shepherds warning. Brought up far from the coast 😀
Several years ago, I was in Spokane, and there were forest fires in the vicinity. One day, the wind shifted and wafted smoke into the city. The sun became a red spot in the sky that one could safely look at without eye protection. The smoke filled cause respiratory distress to all, more so for people with respiratory problems. An unforgettable experience!
My Sisters and Brothers (of which I am the youngest at 58) all agree that we would like to have you as a guest at our next get-together. All 6 of us are history nerds. Normally our conversations start at food, but inevitably wind up with interesting historical events. The banter is light hearted, fun, and always factual. We study like you. You would fit right in and enjoy yourself. We would welcome a fellow history nerd like you. Hell, you even look like you could be my brother.
Thanks THG for enlightening us on the doom and gloom and not blowing smoke at us. 😂
While other lawmakers were "sprawled scross the Davenport of Despair" (a Warren Zevon lyric), legislator Abe Davenport says, "here, hold my candle!"😂
If I could give you TWO thumbs up I would simply for the Warren Zevon reference. kudos good sir, KUDOS!
The description of the red moon and darkening sun sounds a lot like what I see when there’s a major forest fire going on to the east. The only thing that was missing from the story is the smell - I can always tell there’s a fire going on by the smell of smoke in the air which tells me it’s not safe to be outdoors. Now that I think about it, two centuries ago people’s homes didn’t have very good insulation, did they?
I've witnessed this in Australia a couple of times during intense bushfires. Truly frightening given what followed.
Also people probably used wood to heat and cook their homes, so smoke was probably a common smell.
@@DigitalDiabloUK Good point.
@@DigitalDiabloUK why would you cook your home?
@@Marin3r101 the why doesn't matter - the simple fact is that in that time and place, if you wanted to cook your home (or even your neighbor's home), your only option would be to use a wood fire.
How odd is it that I'm watching this after two days of the sun being blotted out by Canadian forest fires? It's not so bad today.
Watching this a second time. So interesting! Hysteria. Bravery. Duty. Faith. History that should be remembered!
Back then, it was the Day of Judgement, and today it is Climate Change. Neither narrative likes perspective very much.
We had a large forest fire in the Columbia Gorge a few years ago. The sun looked similar to this Thank You
I didn't play this until a couple of weeks later. This made for interesting timing as we just relived this event due to the widespread Canadian forest fires of June 2023.
Yesterday, 300 miles south of the Canadian border, we were down to 1 mile visibility because of smoke from the fires north of the border.
1 mile is plenty, don't be greedy 😜
@@edwardfletcher7790 It looked like LA 1970.
@@mikemaricle9941 I'm in Australia, if you want to see some crazy 💩, search for our "driving in a bushfire" videos 😕
Having seen The Day of Orange Sky here in the SF Bay Area in August 2021, the “big forest fire” explanation is the most plausible IMO. And yes, we could use a man like Davenport (or better yet, several) in government today.
that was a crazy day
I'm here in Denver having a "dark day" from fires up in Alberta! Its odd people didn't put two and two together back in those days. Its literally just smoke. Ive experienced the blood red sun/moon and dark haze too many times here in CO the last few years, it looks like dusk all day. We had our 3 largest wildfires and single most destructive fire in state history within a two year span (20-21). Now we're on track to have the wettest spring on record. strange weather!
The issues is that forest fires are extremely rare here in the east, and forest fires large enough to inject enough smoke into the atmosphere to be visible at distances of more than a couple dozen miles basically don’t exist. They wouldn’t really have anything to compare it to.
I'm in London, in south western Ontario, about half way between Toronto and Detroit. We had haze and a red moon and sun last week from the Alberta fires. Where I live what's left of the forests are dominated by hardwoods, but the further north one goes, it gradually shifts to a coniferous dominated forest. If the "Algonquin" referred to in the video is the area now called "Algonquin Park", a huge forest fire would not be only possible, but periodically expected. Given that the water ways in that area were not only important to the fur trade, but the rivers being the "highways" from Montreal to the Great Lakes and beyond, I would think there would be written record of a forest fire of that size in the 1780's.
Forest fires are extremely rare in New England so they would have no knowledge of any fires or smoke that would be causing it
@@SapphireX413 True. And even if the fires were noted at the time in Canada, it's likely that this news would never become associated with the May 19th event-- even if it eventually made it to New England.
Same here in Montana...maybe dimmer.
I live in the middle of the USA. A day or so ago, we had some seriously dim skies. There was quite a bit of cloud cover, but the dimness was obviously from smoke. You could even vaguely smell it. Someone thought we must have had a grass fire going in the area because that tends to happen here. However, I read that it was from fires up in Canada. That's a very long way away, I can only imagine how bad it must have been up there.
As we sit in Denver under a "dark day" from Canadian forest fires watching this wonderful video, I can't help but hope that more than one bloke in New England looked west that day and knowing that out there was forest as far as the eye can see, felt the wind in his face and smelled the faint whiff of ash and said to himself "Ayuh, they's a far out there somewhar's, an itsa big un."
A great forest fire to the west was the first thought that came to mind. The phenomenon was too regionalized to have been a volcano.
We endured horrible fires here in Napa County a few years back (twice between 2015 and 2017!!!). The skies were so dark and filled with suffocating smoke, my 'automatic' headlight setting in my car kept turning on the lights as the computer (along with the forward-looking camera) thought it was nighttime during daylight hours. We had to leave the county several times because the air quality was so bad. It defined eerie and conjured up images of the end of the world and with the fires raging for weeks without restraint, it felt like it. It doesn't take too much for things to go sideways and for people to get crazy as we all did during Covid-19. Sadly, it will happen again. Even now, Canada right now is offering horrific forest fires that will repeat the effects of 1780 for some regions of the north.
As much as I try to listen, I always look to see what’s on your shelves.
I am trying for a cabinet of curiosities.
Just watched the video last week, and here we are again in 2023 and the New York area getting a fresh blast of Canadian smoke!
Great foreshadowing of recent events in New York. As soon as I saw the reports of New York being nearly blacked out by smoke from the fires in Canada I thought of this video. You should update this video and bump it back up to the top of your posts.
Your oratory makes listening to your channel a pleasure.
Thank you, History Guy! I've read a fair amount of history and even taught it a few years, but you just keep surprising and delighting me with interesting history I had not heard about. Keep up the great work!
As soon as you started talking about this I surmised it was from a forest fire. Right this moment as I write in Southern CT our air quality is threatened due to particles and dense smoke from fires in Nova Scotia. Some things don’t change.
In May of 2010 there were forest fires burning in the Canadian Province of Quebec. I remember it well, as it was the Memorial Day weekend and my father had just passed away. There was a light gray haze throughout New Hampshire as a result of those fires. Just an eerie look.
Ahh we are living through this right now in Wisconsin. The give away was the red sun in the am and red sun at sunset along with the obscured sun most of the day. Fires in Canada has made for a couple weeks of very bad air in our area. Great story.
This brought to mind a Saturday at my home on the mid-Atlantic coast of the US. Everything turned a strange yellow like you sometimes hear in stories of events before a tornado. Only thing was that it was clear with no threatening weather visible. Turns out that it was the smoke plume from a forest fire in Canada. The satellite photos showed it being blown almost due south and a little to the east. No, it was not overly dark, just strangely lighted.
I wager Joseph Turner is not too happy about being dead now.
Presently, we are having a huge cloud of smoke here in Connecticut just like they had in 1780. There are over 400 huge forest fires in Canada and the huge smoke clouds have gone South and we have an incredible about of smoke. Looks like History does repeat itself.
I was in high school when this happened. We had to use candles just to find our way to the chamber pot in the center of our one room cabin.
That connection to the Shakers is fascinating! My 6th great grandfather had a nephew and three nieces who joined the Shakers in Alfred, Maine some 25 years after the Dark Day. They were all born after it, but probably heard about it throughout their childhoods.
I’ve been to Algonquin many times & didn’t know this! Thank you, THG!
What timing, I live in Central US and was surprised to see what appeared to be a vast amount of smoke in the air, way more than ever remember. This includes even the smoke from the major 1990 yellowstone fires. Was shocked to find out it is due to fires in Canada. Has to be 2000 km away from here. Conditions improving today but sun is notable orange.
yesterdays sunrise was wild.
It's happening again. I live in New York and the sun was barely there because of the Canadian fires.😮
My first thought was fire. A couple years ago there were fires in BC Canada and here in the Pacific Northwest we had very dark red skys for a week or two. Unlike in 1780 we had the news to tell us what was going on.
Good morning from Connecticut, fellow History students! Hey there Mr. Fort Worth and Sin City! Enjoy today’s lesson!
^_^
We had a few days like that here in San Francisco on 2020Sep09. I have a photo taken midday, although I couldn't past it into the comment. The sky was red, caused by smoke from surrounding wildfires being sucked in over our city. We live in modern times, with science and meteorologists. I can only imagine the panic if it was the 18th century.
It was like that in Humboldt, too. Ash on cars and plants, air unsafe to breathe and way too close for comfort...
The panic in the 18th century? Do you watch the news?!😂
I was gonna say, sounds like 9/9/2020, the height of the fires in Nor Cal, when everything was dark and “apocalyptic orange.” I’ve seen red moons during fire season several times. Lots of smoke and ash in the air would cause this … especially if there was also an eclipse at the same time, but that’s just me speculating. :)
How timely this came today, as we have been dealing with smog from Canadian wildfires the last three days!
I immediately thought of a volcanic eruption. Krakatoa had the same effects and some lasted 2 or 3 years.
And then there is the possibility that same Krakatoa made 536 c.e. the "worst year in history."
We had a day like that in Northern California a few years back. It was proceeded by orange sunrises and sunsets, an orange cast to the moon and MUCH smoky air from the wildfires east of us. Generally, we get coastal winds that clear the air at least partially but one morning there was ashfall and the sun was a deep, cold red, offering minimal light and making everyone - nervous - that the fires might be about to spread to our "neck of the woods" (and we have a lot of big trees that were ready to burn). Two days after this there was still ash and smoke, red sunsets and sun rises, but for that one day...
Having been through that, I pegged the cause long before you revealed it, but you do tell a good story!
Release a video on the exact date AND day of the week as the historic event? BRILLIANT!
Can you say IRONY??? Two weeks after this video it happened again! I am so loving this!
From very rural California fire country, when you first started this journey I was absolutely convinced this was a fire. Great storytelling.
Amazed you haven't done The Walking Purchase yet.. or at least one that I have found. Would love to see you do that event one day, as that I feel it is one of the most, needs to be remembered, moments in history. Yet many people give me blank stares whenever I mention it. I live and grew up along it's path, so I think that is what sparked my fascination with history at a young age as I was able to realize what I learned in history class in school actually was real and it's effects were all around us.
@BSCHULER What is the Walking Purpose?
@@throne1797 The Walking Purchase, not Walking Purpose. I hesitate to even begin to explain it here as it is very complicated and remains even somewhat controversial today. But it was a scam deal devised and used to steal land from the Indians living in the eastern part of what is now Pennsylvania.The children of late colonist William Penn claimed their father had signed a deal with the local indian tribe before his death that they now wanted to carry out. It was called The Walking Purchase, because the fake forged deal, was a land purchase that would be based on how far a man can walk in 3 days. After the walk was done, the scammed Indians realized it was a scam right away, but our judicial system wasn't at all fair at the time, and thus did nothing to help the Indians. Since then, using modern technological advances, the evidence has been conclusive that the scam was a total scam. Even the supposed deal was a fake forgery. But before modern science, people back then knew it was a scam as one just needs to look at the original Walking Purchase map to see the first scam. They were to draw a straight line to the Delaware River as their northern border.. but instead of going the shortest straight line route to the river as they were supposed to, they drew a line along the longest path they could to the river to make the purchased land larger. Anyway, I just find it amazing as I live along the walking path itself and I think it is also an amazing story and example of one way arriving colonists stole the Indians land. I find the way the Indians were treated by the court system the most interesting these days. But overall, I just find every part of this historic Walking Purchase story very interesting and compelling.
The Walking Purchase exemplifies how all subsequent deeds are "fatality flawed" & mute🔕
@@bschuler didn’t they also find one of the best colonial runners to grab as much land as possible?
@@ElleCee62978 Yes they did. I omitted it as I was just trying to be concise. But growing up along it's path, that is what used to fascinate me when I was a child. I was amazed at the distance he was able to travel over rivers, creeks, hills, valleys, etc. in the time allowed. Nowadays, the legal process afterwards is what fascinates me. I am sort of amazed nobody ever made a Hollywood movie out of the Walking Purchase, as it is a fascinating tale and many people don't know about it. But I guess the movie target audience would be very limited and it is a somewhat controversial subject.
As a child I remember reading about this from a book called Strangely Enough by C. B. Colby. 1780 we had not yet won our independence from Great Britain that came in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris. This event has always intrigued me
Thanks for another great presentation.
Just another summer in Alaska.
We have forest fires every summer in Alaska. Some fires grow as large as small lower 48 States.
Sometimes you can smell the wood smoke, sometimes not so much. A fire can burn hundreds of miles away and blot out the Sun, or turn it Red for days at a time.
With nearly 22 hours of daylight late June where I grew up in Fairbanks, we hardly saw the moon on a clear day mid summer.
Never Never Lake, Alaska
"fires grow as large as the lower 48 states" ?? That would an area greater than the state of Alaska
@@rhuephus He said “as large as *small* lower 48 states” as in a fire the size of RI, for example.
@@rhuephus You might want to read my post again. You have misread my post.
@@GoBlueGirl78 Thank you Amanda. Lovely name.
Here in Massachusetts we still remember it, that and a few other storms left huge impacts on our state.
Massachusetts, born and raised (20 minutes outside Boston). This was really interesting!
I live in Australia. Days like these are familiar because of bush fires. Of course, in my lifetime, there have always been media updates, warnings, fire fighters, and fire prevention. Image, if fire and disaster events happened when none of these things existed. I guess we would all turn to supernatural explanations. Thank you for a great historical perspective video!
I think you are right, the description is precisely the same, what people are experiencing in such a conditions, or similar conditions are when volcano became active.
It is a fun idea and i hope The History Guy comes to boring ol' Iowa at some point to check out what history has been forgotten here!
I live in Southeastern Massachusetts and our skies haven't been blue for a week due to 🔥 fires in Western Canada. Today's the first blue sky day in a while.
We visited California in 2003 during the fires fed by the Santa Anna winds. There was constant Ash in the air and the sky was always dark like a really cloudy day.
Exactly 200 yrs later, I was born. Coincidence? Me thinks not. 🤔
Happy Birthday!
What a fun idea!! I would love to join THG and group on a learning adventure!
Regarding this day, I've read before of Davenport's rationale for remaining in assembly. Very sensible and calm!
I appreciate you, thank you for making content.
Anyone 3lse watching this during the crazy weather from the wildfires?
It is interesting that this video appeared in my suggested videos today. The Canadian fires of June 2023 are causing very dark weather in New England and even down into Virginia?
I didn't know Danny DeVito was a Shaker!
We had a day like this in Maine last week. Yellow hue during the day. Forest fires in Canada.
Thank you for this documentary. I really enjoyed it.
Way to go History Guy😊 Thanks for your dedicated work and the history lesson.❤😊
History Guy, this may be one of the finest and most poignant episodes you've ever made, to me. I am well aware of the 1815 Mt. Tambora eruption in Indonesia that cause the "year without a summer" in America's north east. This is simply fascinating and oh so timely. Just yesterday upon returning home from work, here in the beautiful Rocky Mountain West (where everything is the best 😄) I noticed the valley air had turned hazy from the smoke from a fire. A quick search of the internet showed that a massive fire in Canada was the cause. Today, Saturday May 21st, 2023 and the air is still gross, but improving. It's easy to see how people could come to all kinds of conclusions as to the cause of this dark day, some 230+ years ago. But I most admire the man who said something close to, perhaps it is not the end, perhaps it is, but I'd rather be found doing my duty. Simple duty has no place for fear. Then there is the religious fervor that resulted. Indeed that fervor has shaped American history and our lives, my life, to this day. Well done History Guy! Bravo!
The Year Without a Summer represents the first anthropogenic climate change scare in history. Prior to 1816, unusual weather phenomena like the Dark Day of New England were attributed to God's wrath, but in the summer of 1816, claims abounded that Ben Franklin had messed up the world's climate by inventing and marketing the lightning rod. Since then Climate Change and Luddites have been closely intertwined.
Wildfires in Canada.
Same as today, June 8, 2023, with wildfires in Canada blotting out the sun in New York City.
Just a couple of weeks, and you would've been describing New York in the present day. That must've been an enormous fire to have so darkened the skies.
Great presentation and explanation. Thank you.
Thanks, as always.
Good morning from Ft Worth TX to the History Guy and everyone watching. Can't wait for your Memorial Day video next week...OS1(SW/AW) USN Retired
don't matter where you're from brother. i solute u and support u but c'mon that' little much.
It is strange that I should watch this episode today, 19 May 2023 b/c today here in Colorado we experienced a very dark day (Denver was the 2nd city that had a very dark day from forest fires in Canada). Smoke from those fires came down here to Colorado & it was not a pleasant day today. Not as dark as your history lesson but dark it was. :) ps. that is 243 yrs ago today.
Talk about timing. The one about hail the day after they had to plow 5 inches of hail off the highway between Haigler, Nebraska and Wray, Colorado.
Show about a forest fire darkening the northeast, the day after smoke from Canadian fires extended across Kansas.
Lol! My first thought was a volcano. The changed to a forest fire conflagration off in the North West because it was prolonged. I'm a retired firefighter that was a forestry (wildland) firefighter (for only one season, part time).
I was too back in the 1970s for a summer fighting a fire that wouldn't go out near Big Sur, CA. Pay was $2.35 for state land and $7 something for federal land. Big suspicion fell on some out of state/in-state firefighters re-starting the fires for very good pay.
NYC had our Dark Day 06/07/23. Same conditions
Back in 1988 there were huge fires in Yellowstone and the Black Hills, etc. The ash and smoke blew all the way to Minneapolis and the sky was an eerie yellow/orange and the sun dark red for many dark days.
last year was the worst in some years for forest fires, here in the sunny okanagan
September 9, 2020 was a day to remember in San Francisco and much of the west coast. Heavy wildfire smoke rendered the sky an eerie reddish black for nearly the entire day, lightening up later in the afternoon. Air quality at ground level that day was surprisingly not terrible that day, as the smoke was higher up. The terrible ground level air quality would come the next day, as my photos of shining a flashlight beam up into the night sky on September 10th illustrate.
Yeah, the red moon really points towards a forest fire, you did see a similar thing in Australia a while back known as "Black Saturday bushfires". Red moon and dark as night there too. There are of course other things that can cause a similar effect but none likely to hit New England out of nowhere and the tree rings proves it pretty well.
I can see why it scared people, America was a bit chaotic at the time and for some it might have felt as the end of days.
Great Episode again THG.
It's understandable the huge but unknown Canada fire.
(Shades of Mt St Helens eruption & ash darkness coast to coast)
Despite this natural cause,
yet it's always healthy to recall that Judgement Day is each day when we choose to go out own way, or God's Way.
May the two be the same !
Wildfire smoke from Alberta cloaked the Lower 48 this week.
I love the irony of seeing this video after New York and much of the North and Midwest US have been eclipsed by the smoke from Canadian wildfires. I'm not sure that it's any better just because we know why it's happening. But I think that we all ought to get used to it.
Thank you
I’ve been fascinated by this event since the 1970s.
Thank you, History Guy, for the heads up on the Canadian forest fires and there possible impact on the States. I remember the acid rain we used to get from Canada in the 1960's and 1970's and it's effect on the environment, tainting everything yellow/orange and damaging the foliage, lakes/rivers.
I would imagine it is a day never forgotten by the candlemakers of the region, they must have had a bumper year for sales!
I've experienced this on the West Coast, it's crazy
Having seen the day the Sky turned orange in Northern California due to wildfires - I believe the researchers.
Connecticut State Library used to get many questions on the Dark Day. CT State Archives has resources like original documents of General Assembly.
If you travel to Connecticut let me know! State Library has a Hiking Through History program
Reminds me of our area of Arizona back in spring 2011 when we had a MAJOR forest fire in the mountains nearby.
This exact scenario is happening now (Pennsylvania) secondary to wildfires in Nova Scotia and primarily the same on a larger scale the wildfires in Québec
As soon as this started, I simply thought "wildfire." And a second later, remembering that pretty much the entire east coast is under hazy skies and air quality alerts today...due to a wildfire in Canada. Plus ca change and all that
Question: How about we organize a gathering for the historical April 8th, 2024 "X" marks the spot crossing of the solar Eclipses near Cape Girardeau, Missouri. With any luck, we can observe the Mississippi River flow backwards as the New Madrid fault makes a solar induced cameo appearance.
I wonder, then, if New Englanders experienced similar after effects because of the great fires around Lake Michigan in 1871.
I want you to tell me wild history about people and places along the Mississippi River, while we cruise down it on a Pattleboat. You dressed as Mark Twain. With a live band to play the music of each era we pass thru. Yes costumes as well. 😊
LOL- I'll see if I can set that up.