New England's Dark Day refers to an event that occurred on 19 May 1780 Year 1780 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar), when an unusual darkening of the day sky was observed over the New England In one of the earliest European settlements in the New World, Pilgrims from the Kingdom of England first settled in New England in 1620, in the colony of Plymouth. Ten years later, the Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston, thus forming Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. In the late 18th century, the New England colonies would be states and parts of Canada The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three.[1] The primary cause of the event is believed to have been a combination of smoke Smoke is a colloid and comprises a collection of airborne solid and liquid particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-product of fires ,but may also be used for pest control (cf. fumigation), from forest fires A wildfire is any uncontrolled, non-structure fire that occurs in the wilderness, wildland, or bush. Other names such as wildland fire, forest fire, brush fire, vegetation fire, grass fire, peat fire, bushfire , and hill fire are commonly used. The name wildfire was once a synonym for Greek fire as well as a word for any furious or destructive, a thick fog Fog is a cloud that is in contact with the ground. A cloud may be considered partly fog; for example, the part of a cloud that is suspended in the air above the ground is not considered fog, whereas the part of the cloud that comes in contact with higher ground is considered fog, and cloud A cloud is a visible mass of droplets of water or frozen crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or another planetary body. A cloud is also a visible mass attracted by gravity, such as masses of material in space called interstellar clouds and nebulae. Clouds are studied in the nephology or cloud physics branch of cover. The darkness was so complete that candles A candle is a solid block of fuel and an embedded wick, which is lit to provide light, and sometimes heat.[citation needed] were required from noon on. It did not disperse until the middle of the next night.[2][3]
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Range of the Darkness
According to Professor Samuel Williams of Harvard College Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees. Founded in 1636, it is also Harvard's oldest school. Instruction of its students is the responsibility of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Darkness was seen at least as far north as Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2007 estimated city population was 62,875. Portland is Maine's cultural, social and economic capital. It is also the principal city of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area, with a population of 513,102, which includes Cumberland,, and extended southwards to New Jersey The area was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, with historical tribes such as the Lenape along the coast. In the early 1600s, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. The English later seized control of the region, naming it the Province of New Jersey. It was granted as a colony to Sir George Carteret. The Darkness was not witnessed in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania has 51 miles of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles (92 km) of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary.[2]
Progress
The earliest report of the darkness came from Rupert, New York, where the sun was already obscured at sunrise. Professor Samuel Williams observed from Cambridge Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, a nexus of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Notably, Cambridge is home to two internationally prominent universities, Harvard University and the Massachusetts that: "This extraordinary darkness came on between the hours of 10 and 11 A. M. and continued till the middle of the next night." [3] Reverend Ebenezer Parkham, of Westborough, Massachusetts Westborough is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 17,997 at the 2000 census. The town is governed under the open town meeting system located in the town hall, reported peak obscurity to occur "by 12", but did not record the time when the obscuration first arrived.
At Harvard College Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees. Founded in 1636, it is also Harvard's oldest school. Instruction of its students is the responsibility of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the obscuration was reported to arrive at 10:30 AM, peaking at 12:45 PM, and abating by 1:10 PM, although a heavy overcast remained for the rest of the day. The obscuration was reported to have reached Barnstable, Massachusetts Barnstable is a city, referred to as the Town of Barnstable, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod. The town contains seven villages within its boundaries. Its largest village, Hyannis, is the central business district of the, by 2:00 PM, with peak obscurity reported to have occurred at 5:30 PM.[2]
Other atmospheric phenomena
For several days before the Dark Day, the sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It has a diameter of about 1,392,000 kilometers , about 109 times that of Earth, and its mass (about 2 × 1030 kilograms, 330,000 times that of Earth) accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. About three quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen, while the rest is as viewed from New England appeared to be red, and the sky appeared yellow. While the darkness was present, soot was observed to be collected in rivers and in rain water, suggesting the presence of smoke. Also, when the night really came in, observers saw the moon as red as blood. For portions of New England, the morning of 19 May 1780 was characterised by rain, indicating that cloud cover was present.[2][3][4]
Religious interpretations
Since communications technology of the day was primitive, most people found the darkness to be baffling and inexplicable. Since science could not explain it, they applied religious interpretations to the event.[5] The Dark Day of 1780 was, and still is, regarded by many as a supernatural event caused by God God is the English name given to the singular omnipotent being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism.
In Connecticut Southwestern Connecticut is part of the New York metropolitan area; three of Connecticut's eight counties, including most of the state's population, are in the New York City combined statistical area, commonly called the Tri-State Region. Connecticut's center of population is in Cheshire, New Haven County, a member of the legislature, Abraham Davenport, became most famous for his response to his colleagues' fears that it was the Day of Judgment In Islam, the Last Judgment is called a number of things, including yaum al-Qiyamah and God Almighty, or Allah in Arabic, will judge all Creation:
| “ | I choose, for one, to meet Him face to face, No faithless servant frightened from my task, But ready when the Lord of the harvest calls; And therefore, with all reverence, I would say, Let God do His work, we will see to ours. Bring in the candles.[6] | ” |
Davenport's courage was commemorated in the poem "Abraham Davenport" by John Greenleaf Whittier John Greenleaf Whittier was an influential American Quaker poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States. He is usually listed as one of the Fireside Poets. Whittier was strongly influenced by the Scottish poet, Robert Burns.
Today, some Christians, especially those among Seventh-day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ. It is the twelfth-largest religious body in the world. The denomination grew out of the Millerite citing extracts of Biblically sequential events, "... the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky..." (Matthew 24:29 (WEB In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God's Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. God said, "Let there be light," and there was light) are signs preceding the return of Christ) and interpretations of the event as cited by Ellen G. White Ellen Gould White (November 26, 1827 – July 16, 1915) was an American Christian pioneer whose ministry was instrumental in founding the Sabbatarian Adventist movement that led to the rise of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, believe that the Dark Day was a fulfillment of Biblical and end-times prophecy.[7][8] Also see Revelation 6:12-13 "... and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became as blood. The stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind." (WEB)
Cause
The likely cause of the Dark Day was smoke from massive forest fires. When a fire does not kill a tree and the tree later grows, scar marks are left in the growth rings Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree-rings. Dendrochronology can date the time at which tree rings were formed, in many types of wood, to the exact calendar year. This has three main areas of application: paleoecology, where it is used to determine certain aspects of past.[9] This makes it possible to approximate the date of a past fire. Researchers examining the scar damage in Ontario Ontario is bordered by Manitoba on its west, Hudson Bay on its north, and Quebec on its east, and by five States of the United States to its south : Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania (Lake Erie) and New York. All but a small portion of Ontario's 2,700 km (1,677 mi) border with the United States follow inland waterways: from the west at Lake, Canada The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three, attribute the Dark Day to a large fire in the area that is today occupied by Algonquin Provincial Park Algonquin Provincial Park is a provincial park located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River in central Ontario, Canada, mostly within the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District. It is the first provincial park in Canada having been established in 1893. It covers about 7 630 square kilometres. Its size, combined with its proximity to the.[10]
References
- ^ "Ten Notable Apocalypses That (Obviously) Didn’t Happen". Smithsonian magazine Smithsonian is a monthly magazine published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first issue was published in 1970. It is edited by Carey Winfrey. November 12, 2009. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Ten-Notable-Apocalypses-That-Obviously-Didnt-Happen.html. Retrieved 2009-11-14. "At 9 a.m. on May 19, 1780, the sky over New England was enveloped in darkness. An 1881 article in Harper’s Magazine stated that, “Birds went to roost, cocks crowed at mid-day as at midnight, and the animals were plainly terrified.” The unnatural gloom is believed to have been caused by smoke from forest fires, possibly coupled with heavy fog. But at the time, some feared the worst. “People [came] out wringing their hands and howling, the Day of Judgment is come,” recalled a Revolutionary War fifer. ..."
- ^ a b c d "New England's Dark Day" in The Weather Doctor Almanac 2004. Retrieved from http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc2004/alm04may.htm.
- ^ a b c "An Account of a very uncommon Darkness, in the State of New England, May 19, 1780" in The Analytical Review, Or History of Literature, Domestic and Foreign, on an Enlarged Plan, p. 519.
- ^ Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, p. 193
- ^ Mark well the gloom: Shedding light on the great dark day of 1780. Retrieved from http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/eh/12.1/campanella.html.
- ^ Colby, C. B. (1959). Strangely Enough. Sydney: Oak Tree Press. ISBN 0-8069-3918-4, p. 29.
- ^ Bible Universe. Retrieved from http://www.bibleuniverse.com/prophecy/sun_darkness.asp.
- ^ The Dark Day. Retrieved from http://www.bibleprophecytruth.com/JesusChrist/thedarkday.asp.
- ^ "A Brief Introduction to Fire History Reconstruction". 2005-07-11. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/impd/impd_data_intro.html. Retrieved 2008-05-19.
- ^ Fire scars reveal source of New England’s 1780 Dark Day. Retrieved from http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/WF05095.htm.
External links
- May 2004 Weather Almanac entry
- Joseph Dow's history of Hampton entry
- "Abraham Davenport & The Dark Day" at The Stamford Historical Society
- What Caused New England's Dark Day?
- WIRED: Darkness at Noon Enshrouds New England
Categories: 1780 natural disasters | History of New England | 18th-century meteorology | Anomalous weather
