Your humble hosts are traveling this week, trying to see the first total eclipse of our lifetimes. While we’re gone, listen to the story of the 1806 eclipse, the first total eclipse seen in Boston after European colonization.
Total Eclipse
- Viewing details for the 2017 eclipse in Boston
- In an article on Quaker martyr Mary Dyer, Christy K Robertson tipped me off to the 1659 eclipse.
- Thomas Jefferson misses the 1778 Eclipse.
- More on the 1779 Massachusetts expedition against the British on Penobscot Bay in Episode 25.
- The 1780 expedition to view an eclipse at Penobscot Bay.
- Putting that expedition in the context of the Revolution.
- A letter ordering the state to outfit a ship for the 1760 expedition.
- The New York Times reports on why the 1806 eclipse was particularly good for viewers in Boston.
- Cows on Boston Common were disturbed by the 1806 total eclipse.
- The path of the 1806 eclipse.
This Week in Boston History
- August 21, 1765: The first Boston-made fire engine fights its first fire, and succeeds.
- August 22, 1792: Elizabeth Freeman wins her freedom in a case that will lead to the end of slavery in Massachusetts.
- August 23, 1927: Despite probably being innocent, Sacco and Vanzetti are executed, leading to worldwide protests. Learn more about the case in Episode 12.
- August 24, 1783: Abigail Adams writes to John with news of a deadly outbreak of measles in Boston.
- August 25, 1635: The most powerful hurricane ever recorded in New England makes landfall. Modern reconstructions show that the eye passed directly over Boston.
- August 26, 1765: A mob protesting the stamp act loots and nearly demolishes Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson’s house in the North End.
- August 27, 1640: Twenty one barrels of gunpowder explode in the hold of the Mary Rose on Boston Harbor.