On this day in New York · November 9, 1965
The Great Northeast Blackout of 1965
A single misfiring relay near Niagara Falls knocked out power to more than 30 million people in five minutes, and New York spent that night finding out it was calmer in the dark than anyone expected.
The facts
- Blackout began
- November 9, 1965, 5:16 p.m.
- Area affected
- About 80,000 square miles across the Northeast and Ontario
- People affected
- More than 30 million
- Power fully restored
- 7 a.m., November 10, 1965
At 5:16 p.m. on November 9, 1965, a misprogrammed safety relay at a hydroelectric station near Niagara Falls tripped during the evening rush hour, and the failure cascaded across the regional power grid within minutes. New York City went dark around 5:27 p.m., stranding more than 800,000 subway riders in stalled trains under Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and most of Brooklyn. The outage reached across the Northeast United States and into Ontario, Canada, cutting power to more than 30 million people over roughly 80,000 square miles, with some areas dark for as long as 13 hours. A full moon lit the streets that night, and full power did not return to the city until 7 a.m. the next morning.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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only five reports of looting were made in New York City after the 1965 blackout. It was said to be the lowest amount of crime on any night in the city's history since records were first kept.
Wikipedia, "Northeast blackout of 1965"
Source: Wikipedia -
The safety relay had been misprogrammed, and it did what it had been asked to do: to disconnect under the loads it perceived.
Wikipedia, "Northeast blackout of 1965"
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
It's still the reference point every later New York blackout gets measured against, especially the chaos of 1977, because 1965 stayed weirdly calm: strangers walked each other home and the city recorded almost no crime, proof that the lights going out doesn't automatically mean the city does too.
Sources
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