--- title: Memorable Eclipses in American History description: A look back at significant eclipses in America since the Revolutionary War. canonical: https://time.com/6963671/eclipses-through-history/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-04-05T16:42:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:52:29.193Z article:section: History og:title: 7 Memorable Eclipses From the Last 250 Years og:description: A look back at significant eclipses in America since the Revolutionary War. og:url: https://time.com/6963671/eclipses-through-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64fa3cee23ca376/698a555b457a524771d6a279/solar-eclipse-history-1925a.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: solar-eclipse-history-1925a og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 7 Memorable Eclipses From the Last 250 Years twitter:description: A look back at significant eclipses in America since the Revolutionary War. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta64fa3cee23ca376/698a555b457a524771d6a279/solar-eclipse-history-1925a.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 7 Memorable Eclipses From the Last 250 Years ## Video: How Eclipse Chasers are Going to Watch the 2024 Solar Eclipse [Watch (HLS stream): How Eclipse Chasers are Going to Watch the 2024 Solar Eclipse](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HELujoQS.m3u8) (3:41)  _Published 2024-04-04. The 2024 total solar eclipse will cross through parts of Mexico and several U.S. states before exiting over Canada. Here's how a few eclipse chasers from around the world have planned their trips to see be in the total eclipse path._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 5, 2024 4:42 PM UTC  The total eclipse of the sun on Jan. 24, 1925. The total eclipse of the sun on Jan. 24, 1925.Corbis/Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Apr 5, 2024 4:42 PM UTC On April 8, many Americans will be able to see a total[ eclipse](https://time.com/6960270/solar-eclipse-2024-path-of-totality-map/)—their[ last chance](https://time.com/6962638/what-is-hybrid-eclipse/) to view one in the contiguous U.S. until 2044\. Throughout history, eclipses prompt an enthusiasm among people that is contagious, according to author David Baron, whose book _American Eclipse_ covers the [1878 eclipse](https://time.com/4880606/total-solar-eclipse-history-1878/), which led to a new kind of enthusiasm for science in the U.S.. “Excitement about the 1878 eclipse really got America jazzed about science and galvanized us to try to take on Europe as our own scientific power,” Baron says. Below, TIME looks back at notable eclipses in American history. **October 27, 1780** This eclipse crossed Maine, including territory under British control during the [Revolutionary war](https://time.com/3800743/faces-of-the-american-revolution/). Massachusetts governor-elect [John Hancock](https://time.com/5323460/declaration-of-independence-john-trumbull/) wrote a letter to British forces asking them to briefly put their political differences aside and allow Harvard professor Samuel Williams through the Gulf of Maine to make some observations, writing, “We are political enemies, yet with regard to Science it is presumable we shall not dissent from the practice of all civilized people in promoting it either in conjunction or separately as occasions for it shall happen to offer.” **June 16, 1806** The eclipse could be seen from modern-day Arizona to Massachusetts. Among the Massachusetts observers was U.S. Senator and future President [John Quincy Adams](https://time.com/4401249/presidential-pants-history/), who [journaled](https://www.masshist.org/publications/jqadiaries/index.php/document/jqadiaries-v27-1806-06-16-p238/dual) about the phenomenon from Boston. As he observed changes in wildlife behavior, “The cattle, and poultry discovered the symptoms of Night, and followed their usual habits on its approach—the swallows appeared surprized and flew with that wild irregularity, which is described as betokening the approach of an Earthquake.”  August 7, 1869: An image created by French artist Etienne Leopold Trouvelot during the solar eclipse of Aug. 7, 1869 in Shelbyville, Kentucky. SSPL/Science Museum/Getty Images **August 7, 1869** This [eclipse](https://time.com/6882980/eclipse-types-lunar-annular/) went from Dakota territory down to North Carolina. Among the scientists who flocked to Iowa to see this eclipse was Maria Mitchell and several of her Vassar students—the only all-female group watching the eclipse. Her sister, the artist Phebe Mitchell Kendall, came along to sketch the eclipse. “The Mississippi assumed a leaden hue; a sickly green spread over the landscape,” she wrote at the time. “The birds uttered a painful cry; fireflies winked in the foliage, and when the last ray of light was extinguished.” **July 29, 1878** In Denver, many businesses [closed](https://time.com/6961863/solar-eclipse-2024-traffic/) to view this eclipse, which was visible from the Montana territory to Texas. With hotels booked up, people begged local residents to let them stay in their extra rooms, and at least one man reportedly slept on a pool table. People could pay to go up church steeples, or rent a tent in the Gardens of Gods public park. A Denver sheep herder described the eclipse as “a black carpet sliding over the plains.” At the nearby summit Grays Peak, observers sang “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and fired revolvers to celebrate. Eclipse glasses were made out of shards of clear glass blackened over a candle. **May 28, 1900** [President William McKinley ](https://time.com/5160978/presidents-day-history-memory/)was among the thousands of people in the southeastern U.S.—from Texas to Virginia—who saw the first eclipse visible in America in the 20th century, stationing himself aboard the _USS Dolphin_ in Norfolk_._ “Twilight settled on land and water and the skies took on wonderful after-sunset tints,” per one Associated Press [dispatch](https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86092518/1900-05-29/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=1900&index=1&rows=20&words=after+after-sunset+land+settled+skies+sunset+tints+took+Twilight+water+wonderful&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1900&proxtext=%22Twilight+settled+on+the+land+and+water+and+the+skies+took+on+wonderful+after-sunset+tints%22&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1) that ran in May 29, 1900, newspapers. Weather Bureau scientists nationwide kept their eyes on shadow bands, which NASA defines as “thin wavy lines of alternating light and dark that can be seen moving and undulating in parallel on plain-coloured surfaces immediately before and after a total solar eclipse.” **June 8, 1918** The eclipse was supposed to be visible coast to coast—from Washington State to Florida—but some areas of the country couldn’t see it due to heavy clouds. The New York _Sun_ [described](https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030431/1918-06-09/ed-1/seq-16/#date1=06%2F09%2F1918&sort=relevance&date2=06%2F09%2F1918&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=15&words=eclipse+ECLIPSE+eclipses&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=%22eclipse%22&proxtext=&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1) the phenomenon as “the wonderfully colored glow of the inner circle with its moving multi-colored shafts of light.” From his perch in Goldendale, Wash., scientist W.W. Campbell [wrote](https://www.nytimes.com/1918/06/10/archives/clouds-fall-away-for-solar-eclipse-coincidence-called-remarkable-by.html) in the New York _Times_ that the eclipse was the darkest of the six he’d observed in his career, adding, “Reading would have been difficult under the open sky.” The next time a solar eclipse became viewable from the contiguous U.S. was August 21, 2017\.  January 24, 1925: President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge view the solar eclipse from the White House Lawn. Universal Images Group/Getty Images **January 24, 1925** This eclipse was widely seen from New York City, so observers stationed themselves on rooftops along the Hudson River to get a good view, in nine-degree temperatures. The [New York Stock Exchange](https://time.com/4777959/buttonwood-agreement-stock-exchange/) delayed its opening so traders could watch the eclipse. The Feb. 2, 1925, issue of TIME [reported](https://time.com/vault/issue/1925-02-02/page/20/) that the period of totality occurred five seconds later than predicted and radio transmission was affected. Per a Jan. 25, 1925, New York _Times_ [report](https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/01/25/101635295.html?pageNumber=5), a Harlem court saw three men who were arrested being too drunk and rowdy—or as the paper put it, “overdoing a liquid celebration” in anticipation of the eclipse. The judge, upon learning the men were in jail the morning while the eclipse took place, said “I think you have been sufficiently punished. 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