--- description: July 13, 1977: New York City endures a 25-hour blackout after lightning strikes power lines, prompting widespread arson, looting, and riots title: New York City Blackout 1977: A Dark Hour in More Ways Than One image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfdc0617a0b43aa3/69885a19a988ca5c506b35f7/1101770725_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why the 1977 Blackout Was One of New York’s Darkest Hours by [Jennifer Latson](/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 13, 2015 2:30 PM CUT  The July 25, 1977, cover of TIME The July 25, 1977, cover of TIMECover Credit: SKYLINE BY ERIC MEOLA; LOOTERS BY ALON REININGER/CONTACT. by [Jennifer Latson](/author/jennifer-latson/) ## Jennifer Latson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 13, 2015 2:30 PM CUT The blackout that hit New York on this day, July 13, in 1977 was to many a metaphor for the gloom that had already settled on the city. An economic decline, coupled with rising crime rates and the panic-provoking (and paranoia-inducing) [Son of Sam murders](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,915247,00.html "undefined"), had combined to make the late 1970s New York’s Dark Ages. Then lightning struck, and the city went dark for real. By the time the power came back, 25 hours later, arsonists had set more than 1,000 fires and looters had ransacked 1,600 stores, [per the New York _Times_](http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/remembering-the-77-blackout/?%5Fr=0 "undefined"). Opportunistic thieves grabbed whatever they could get their hands on, from luxury cars to sink stoppers and clothespins, according to the [New York _Post_](http://nypost.com/2007/07/09/lights-out-for-suffering-city/ "undefined"). The sweltering streets became a battleground, where, per the _Post,_ “even the looters were being mugged.” The mayhem of 1977 came as a night-and-day contrast with New York’s previous citywide blackout, in 1965\. The earlier outage affected far more people (25 million, spanning New York and seven other states, plus two Canadian provinces, compared to the 9 million people in New York and its northern suburbs who lost power in ’77, [per TIME](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,919089,00.html "undefined")). Yet the effects were dramatically, devastatingly different. As TIME put it, the 1977 blackout left the city powerless in terms of electricity and also powerless to stop the people who seized the opportunity to riot. “They set hundreds of fires and looted thousands of stores,” the magazine [noted](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,919089,00.html "undefined"), “illuminating in a perverse way twelve years of change in the character of the city, and perhaps of the country.” One [TIME editor remarked](http://time.com/vault/issue/1977-07-25/page/5/ "undefined") that the tenor of the blackout had more in common with the 1964 Harlem race riots than with the 1965 blackout, which had been generally seen as an example of the city’s resilience. Now it seemed as if New York had set itself to auto-destruct. TIME noted how news media outside the city characterized the crisis: --- > “” --- The blackout ultimately shone a spotlight on some of the city’s long-overlooked shortcomings, from [glaring flaws in the power network](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,915264,00.html "undefined") to the much deeper-rooted issues of racial inequality and the suffering of the “American underclass,” as [TIME dubbed it](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,915331,00.html "undefined"). Some saw the worsening circumstances — and institutional neglect — of this group of people as the key to the differences between the two New York blackouts. The ’77 blackout presented a rare opportunity for the powerless minority to suddenly seize power, TIME concluded, quoting the head of the National Urban League as saying, “\[The underclass\] in a crisis feels no compulsion to abide by the rules of the game because they find that the normal rules do not apply to them.” **_Read TIME’s cover story about the blackout, here in the archives_**: [Night of Terror](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,919089,00.html "undefined") ### Lights Out New York: The 1959 Blackout  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Caption from LIFE. "Candlelit automat provides dinner with a touch of old world atmosphere. Local storekeepers ran out of candles and flashlights in a couple of hours." Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not originally published in LIFE. Scene in New York during 1959 summer blackout. Joe Scherschel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3949986/1977-blackout-new-york-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3949986/1977-blackout-new-york-history/"},"headline":"Why the 1977 Blackout Was One of New York’s Darkest Hours","datePublished":"2015-07-13T14:30:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:02:35.889Z","description":"July 13, 1977: New York City endures a 25-hour blackout after lightning strikes power lines, prompting widespread arson, looting, and riots","url":"https://time.com/3949986/1977-blackout-new-york-history/","keywords":["Crime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfdc0617a0b43aa3/69885a19a988ca5c506b35f7/1101770725_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jennifer Latson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/jennifer-latson/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcfdc0617a0b43aa3/69885a19a988ca5c506b35f7/1101770725_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The July 25, 1977, cover of TIME","caption":"The July 25, 1977, cover of TIME","creditText":"Cover Credit: SKYLINE BY ERIC MEOLA; LOOTERS BY ALON REININGER/CONTACT.","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3949986/1977-blackout-new-york-history/","name":"Why the 1977 Blackout Was One of New York’s Darkest Hours"}}]}] ```