The radio saved the day when the power went out in new york on 1965.

At about 5 pm eastern time, half an hour after sunset, the lights began to flash. Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle a little more. "* * *" was later described as "a crazy flash for about a minute, like a silent alarm."

12 minutes later, when millions of new york people came home from work, the whole city was in complete darkness.

It was Tuesday, 1965,165438+1October 9, and it was also the biggest and most famous blackout in China.

It's not just new york. Most of the northeastern United States has become a dark zone of nine States plus three Canadian provinces. In all, about 30 million people were tripped to the ground, trying to remember the last place where they saw candles and matches. In Manhattan alone, 800,000 people are trapped in the subway, and thousands more are trapped in elevators. The traffic lights are broken and ordinary citizens are directing traffic. Doctors are delivering babies and operating with flashlights.

For the news media in new york, this is a life-long story. The problem is that to tell this story, we must first look at the latest news content: electricity.

As George P. Hunt, editor of Life magazine, said in his magazine, "An amazing news story is unfolding around us, and our editors in new york are trapped in a skyscraper without lights." Telephone and broken elevator.

For China's three most popular news sources, the timing couldn't be worse. For example, CBS was forced to move its evening broadcast to an alternate studio in Washington, D.C., and anchor Walter? Walter cronkite talked about the power failure by telephone. On NBC, host Frank McKee spoke in a makeshift studio, and the lights looked like dinner candles.

However, radio came into being in this situation. As long as the radio station has a backup generator to send news, the battery-powered transistor radio can still receive news. A famous magazine later called the power outage "transistor day" and "the best moment since D day" on the radio.

What can alleviate people's greatest fears more than any other media is broadcasting, and in 1965, these fears may become quite bad. The cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union is still frozen. Movies about nuclear doomsday, such as "Safe" and "Love in Doctor Strange" released a year ago, are still fresh in people's minds.

Some people's thoughts have not been touched, at least for the time being, because they firmly believe that this is a missile on the road and the end of the world is just around the corner? The New Yorker is not a magazine famous for hysteria. In the next issue of the magazine, it asks:

Although no one knows what happened, thanks to the radio, * * * can assure Americans that nothing happened. The United States was not attacked.

Some of the thousands of silencers that were delayed had to be fumbled around. During the power outage on the East Coast, there was a power outage in new york. These resourceful suburban residents found a downtown restaurant and bar to serve them by candlelight. (Bettmann/Corbis) When the blackout destroyed the railway and subway services, these people were trapped there and could not go home. With the dawn coming, the power suddenly came back. A corridor on the ground floor of Sheraton Atlantic Hotel looks like new york City, and the lights are on again. (Bettmann/Corbis) *** * was the only newspaper published during the power outage. At the same time, newspapers are doing their best to report this matter. At that time, there were six major daily newspapers in new york, twice as many as now. But only one newspaper, The Times, will publish a version the next morning.

Journalists and editors in The New York Times worked by candlelight in nearby hardware stores, restaurants and even churches, and collected their EDI 165438+ 10/0. A publisher in New Jersey, unaffected by the power outage, readily agreed to typesetting and printing. As a result, as Arthur gelb, editor of The New York Times, recalled in his memoir Room in the City, it was a "strange 10 page version, a version of The New York Times style and Newark news type."

Not surprisingly, its content is a bit out of tune with The Times motto "All news suitable for printing": a few pages of power outages and other news, a stock list, a crossword puzzle, a bridge column, and some extra bits and pieces and endings. In addition, in the spirit of optimism, the next day's TV program list.

The title actually tells the story:

Blackouts roar northeast;

800,000 people are trapped in the subway here;

The car was tied up and the city groped in the dark.

When New York Post released a version later that day, it took a simpler approach. In a photo of a dark city, it asked most people in new york a one-word question:

why

This will be another day for newspapers such as Daily News and Tribune Herald to be revised. This news clearly contains its internal beatnik, and the headline on the front page is:

Nobody dug it up.

Energy flow of

At least by then, people in new york have had the light to read newspapers. 7: 00 am on June 1 10, 4 hours before the first meeting.

The power supply has been restored, but questions about the cause of the disaster, coupled with seemingly endless stories about human interests, will flood the newspapers for several days. The picture that appears is a night of power failure, but it is friendly, inconvenient and indomitable.

For example, there is a well-known story that a boy of 1 1 years old in New Hampshire happened to hit a lamppost with a stick at the moment of power failure, and then hurried home, fearing that he had caused all this.

There is also the story of pianist Vladimir Horowitz, who went out when he was performing in Carnegie Hall. He finished a piece that Chopin didn't miss a note.

And a pilot about Scandinavian Airlines saw the landing light at Kennedy International Airport in an instant, looked down at his instrument and looked up to find that the runway had completely turned black. Although it is estimated that 500 flights were diverted due to power failure, there were no accidents. This is a happy fact caused by a clear sky and a full moon night in Wan Li. )

Other statements involve a large number of people. Thousands of people huddled on the floors of railway stations, hotel lobbies and department stores for the night. Macy's alone received about 4,000 to 5,000 shoppers stranded in restaurants, and many people in the bedding department were laid off.

Even criminals seem to be in a state of mind. Although there were some reports of robbery and other injuries, it was reported that the crime rate decreased that night, although some of them may be related to the increase of police force.

1965 power outage is called "good power outage". On the contrary, for example, the power failure in July 1977 is now remembered as a carnival of robbery, destruction and arson-this is the most unruly symbol of new york.

By the end of this week, the official explanation for the power outage has come out. A faulty relay in Ontario-a device the size of a light switch-caused power stations in northeastern North America to shut down one after another. This is probably the first time that most Americans have heard the word "power grid"-a complex and interrelated system that provides electricity, makes our refrigerators hum and keeps our lights on (anyway, most of the time).