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New England's Dark Day occurred on May 19, 1780, when an unusual darkening of the daytime sky was observed over the New England states and parts of eastern Canada. The primary cause of the event is believed to have been a combination of smoke from forest fires, a thick fog, and cloud cover. The darkness was so complete that candles were required from noon on. It did not disperse until the middle of the next night.
According to Professor Samuel Williams of Harvard College, the darkness was seen at least as far north as Portland, Maine, and extended southwards to New Jersey. The darkness was not witnessed in Pennsylvania.
The earliest report of the darkness came from Rupert, Vermont, where the sun was already obscured at sunrise. Professor Samuel Williams observed from Cambridge, Massachusetts, This extraordinary darkness came on between the hours of 10 and 11 a.m. and continued till the middle of the next night. Reverend Ebenezer Parkham of Westborough, Massachusetts, reported peak obscurity to occur by 12, but did not record the time when it first arrived. At Harvard College, the obscuration was reported to arrive at 10:30 a.m., peaking at 12:45 p.m. and abating by 1:10 p.m., but a heavy overcast remained for the rest of the day. The obscuration was reported to have reached Barnstable, Massachusetts, by 2:00 p.m., with peak obscurity reported to have occurred at 5:30 p.m.
More information: BBC
Roosters crowed, woodcocks whistled, and frogs peeped as if night had fallen at 2:00 p.m. in Ipswich, Massachusetts. A witness reported that a strong sooty smell prevailed in the atmosphere, and that rain water had a light film over it that was made up of particles of burnt leaves and ash. Contemporaneous reports also indicated that ash and cinders fell on parts of New Hampshire to a depth of 15 cm.
For several days before the Dark Day, the sun as viewed from New England appeared to be red, and the sky appeared yellow. While the darkness was present, soot was observed to have collected in rivers and in rain water, suggesting the presence of smoke. Also, when the night really came in, observers saw the moon colored red. For portions of New England, the morning of May 19, 1780, was characterized by rain, indicating that cloud cover was present.
Since communications technology of the day was primitive, most people found the darkness to be baffling and inexplicable. Many applied religious interpretations to the event.
The likely cause of the Dark Day was smoke from extensive forest fires, for which there is evidence from the time of the Dark Day. When a fire does not kill a tree and the tree later grows, scar marks are left in the growth rings. This makes it possible to approximate the date of a past fire. Researchers examining tree rings and fire scars in trees in the area that is today occupied by Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, see evidence of a fire in 1780 and attribute the Dark Day to that.
More information: Owlcation
Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected
dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.
Saint Augustine
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