19 May 1780

"Referred to as New England’s Dark Day or Black Friday, the skies over New England & New Jersey were as black as the boots of the British soldiers, prompting many agitated colonists to seek solace and salvation in taverns or churches.

The newspapers of the day commented upon it and many diarists recorded it in their journals. In the Diary of the American Revolution, Frank Moore noted that 2 o’clock in the afternoon was the darkest period, when a candle was needed to see anything. ... 'there was the appearance of midnight.' By four o’clock, 'there appeared quick flashes or coruscations, not unlike the aurora borealis.' ...

In New Jersey George Washington remarked in his diary about heavy and uncommon clouds, 'dark and at the same time a bright and reddish kind of light intermixed with them—brightening and darkning.'"

https://www.massar.org/201...