More Heavenly Portents
If the largest meteor on record was not interesting enough a fact, blazing through the sky on July 20, 1860, a total eclipse of the sun took place on July 18, 1860 and a rare alignment of the planets. In between these heavenly displays was born Lizzie Borden on July 19th. The likelihood of these circumstances being repeated are remote. The New York Times has this to say http://www.nytimes.com/1860/07/18/news/the-eclipse-of-to-day.html?pagewanted=1 The following is an excerpt:
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The Eclipse of To-Day,
Published: July 18, 1860
“To-day occurs the most impressive of all celestial phenomena — a total Solar Eclipse! Not only is it total, lasting three entire and precious minutes, but the chief planets of our system — Venus, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn, constellated around the sun — “assist” at the fete. Many a century will pass before the numbers which rule the stars shall bring about so rare a combination, and permit other eyes in other ages to contemplate a spectacle so magnificent.
In our latitudes, indeed, we are only favored with a partial obscuration, our portion of the planet falling not under the umbra, but the penumbra, of the moon: and to us this Eclipse will offer no higher interest than others already witnessed at various times during the present generation.
It is along the upper sides of our continent — from the mouth of the Columbia River across British America, Hudson’s Bay and Labrador — that the moon projects its black conical shadow, seventy miles wide. Athwart the Atlantic the umbra sweeps, passing over Northern Spain and Africa, and terminating near the borders of the Red Sea. Preparations for observing the grand phenomenon, accordingly, have been going on for months. . . . .”
A rare time for a singular person to come into the world indeed.