###The Carrington Event
Global, September 1859 — A massive burst of solar energy slammed into Earth, setting the skies on fire and turning night into day.
On September 1, 1859, British astronomer Richard Carrington was sketching sunspots when a blinding white flash erupted on the Sun's surface. He had just witnessed the first recorded solar flare. Seventeen hours later, a massive wave of charged particles slammed into Earth's magnetic field.
The impact triggered spectacular, pulsing auroras across the globe, reaching as far south as Hawaii and the Caribbean. The midnight sky glowed so intensely that confused birds began to sing, and city dwellers woke up and read the newspaper outdoors, convinced the sun was rising.
The intense magnetic storm also wreaked havoc on the world's newest technology: the telegraph. The fluctuating magnetic fields pumped massive electrical currents directly into global telegraph wires. Operators received severe electric shocks, and their machine paper literally burst into flames.
The Carrington Event — Global, September 1859