🔬 Lab, quiz and sources for this story: https://echoesof.science/midnight-at-noon/
On 19 May 1780, in the middle of a spring morning, the sky over New England turned yellow, then black. By noon people could not read inside their houses, candles were lit at lunchtime, and roosters crowed. In the middle of the American Revolution, many thought the end of the world had come.
Try it yourself: turn a torch into a smoky sun with milk and a drop of tea, and measure how dark a dark day really is. https://echoesof.science/midnight-at-noon
CHAPTERS
0:00 Cold open
1:17 II. Judgment Day
3:42 V. It Happens Again
4:14 Epilogue
ARCHIVE PHOTOS & FOOTAGE
• 1780 Raynal and Bonne Map of New England and the Maritime Pr — Rigobert Bonne, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• A Map of the most Inhabited part of New England, containing — Jefferys, Thomas, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• Portrait of Abigail Adams by Benjamin Blyth LOC hec.13515.jp — Harris & Ewing Collection, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• Fire scars in Pinus ponderosa crosscut.jpg — Chris Schnepf, University of Idaho, CC BY 3.0 us (Wikimedia Commons)
• Deep red sun filtered by smoke from wildfires.jpg — Glenn Beltz, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
• Red sun in Mississauga 02.jpg — The Eloquent Peasant, CC BY 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
• Woolsey Fire - Air Tanker in smoke below a red sun (20181119 — Photo courtesy of Peter Buschmann, Unite, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• North Complex smoke in San Francisco - Bay Bridge and Financ — Christopher Michel, CC BY 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
• Orange Haze Hides Manhattan.jpg — Jim Griffin, CC0 (Wikimedia Commons)
• Rooster crowing small.ogv — Benchill, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• Prague st Vitus Easter ringing 2012.ogg — Gampe, Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
• Music: "Lightless Dawn" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Dark Times" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Unanswered Questions" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Long Note Four" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
• Music: "Clean Soul" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), CC BY 4.0
The village, chamber, tree rings and smoke paths are illustrations.
Echoes of Science: true stories you never heard of, and the science behind them. Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@echoesof.science
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