Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Samuel's Prophecy of a Night Without Darkness and the Aurora Borealis in Europe (25 January 1938)


The late John Tvedtnes, in his 2003 Book of Mormon Archaeological Foundation presentation, discussed Samuel the Lamanite's prophecy of a night without darkness:

A Night without Darkness

Samuel the Lamanite prophesied that there would be a night without darkness at the time of Christ's birth. There are several possibilities of how that took place.  I am not trying to say that there is no miraculous nature involved here, but the Lord uses natural means to accomplish things. There are, for example, glowing night fogs that have been observed in various places. The cause is unknown although it is thought that it might be electrical in nature. The phenomenon was first described in 1982 by meteorologist William R. Corliss.  He discovered that there were a number of such instances that had occurred in the past. One was a luminous fog that extended from Africa to Sweden and throughout North and South America. That is a gigantic fog, and it glowed in the dark. It also appeared in a few other places, for example, in 1783, in the Alps as well as in valleys nearby. A similar fog was observed in Western Europe in August 1821. An 1831 fog was almost world-wide. Corliss concludes that “nights were so bright that the smallest print could be read at midnight.” In 1890, the engineer and passengers aboard a Houston, Texas, railroad train reported a glowing arch having the appearance of a mist in the moonless night, low enough in the atmosphere that the train actually passed through it or beneath it and came out the other side. Beneath the mist everything was pale like under a full moon (the moon was not out that particular night). A similar occurrence was reported by another train on the West Meridian Railroad in Pennsylvania on 2 May 1919. This was transparent but bright enough to block out any of the stars that were behind it.  

There is also something that is called “earthquake luminosity.” For example, on 9 December 1731, following an earthquake in Florence, Italy, luminous clouds appeared over England. Several days prior to an earthquake that hit England on 2 March 1750, residents of London reported seeing reddish bows in the air that took the same direction as the shock wave when it finally did come. On 23 August 1750, there was another aurora accompanied by a quake at Spalding, England.  Then, a month later in September, at Northampton, there was another small earthquake (these were probably all related). A Dr. Doddridge reported a fireball that morning, a red sky the following night, and then following that “the finest aurora I've ever seen.” Similar things have happened in places like France and South America. In fact, it is very common in South America where it is called the “Andes glow.” Earthquakes are also much more frequent in the Andes than they are in Europe, and so during times preceding and during earthquakes this glow appears, and sometimes follows the mountain ridges for as much as 300 miles in length.

In 1908 there was a period of time during which there were some very, very bright skies. That was the year when an object burned up in the atmosphere and exploded over the Tunguska region of Siberia. There have been various theories put forth as to what it was, but most scientists now believe it was a comet or asteroid. The topic has been seriously studied since 1937. Though most Europeans did not know about this explosion over Siberia until after the word got back into Russia, then spread to other parts of Europe, the nights were very bright after this explosion. Later, meteorologists looking at this thought this was probably reflected sunlight, but, sometimes it lasted all night long, covering most of northern Europe, parts of Asia and North America. The sky glowed with red and yellow hues even when it was overcast, so it was bright enough to shine through the clouds. It also affected the weather in some places in the northern hemisphere. In the British Isles the northeast sky was tinted red, and people in Scotland reported that in rooms facing north objects cast shadows at night. In London it was possible to read the small print in the London Times at midnight. On 1 July 1908 a reader wrote to the Times, “A strange light in the sky that was seen last night by my sister and myself appeared about midnight. The sky for some distance above the light appeared to be as blue on the horizon as in the daytime, with bands of light cloud of a pinkish color floating across it at intervals. Only the brightest stars could be seen in any part of the sky although this was an almost cloudless night. It was possible to read the large print indoors at 1:30 a.m. The room was quite as light as if it had been day.” Photographs were taken by this natural light at 1:00 a.m. at Stockholm, Sweden, and also at Novorzhev, Russia, and they look like a bright summer afternoon (I have actually seen these photos). One Russian man reported that the brightness woke him up at 1:15 in the morning and he spent half the night reading by this light. He said that at 1:45 a.m. the whole sky was a delicate salmon-pink. A British artist in Chelsea painted a series of pastels based of the glowing night sky. So, you can see that it is certainly possible, even in a purely naturalistic view, that there could be a night without darkness at the time of Christ's birth, as Samuel the Lamanite had prophesied and that actually took place.

Another recorded event mirroring the examples Tvedtnes gives, and, by extension, Samuel's prophecies, comes from the 26 January 1938 issue of the New York Times in a story with the headline, "Aurora Borealis Startles Europe; People Flee in Fear, all Firemen":

Special Cable to The New York Times.
London, Jan. 25.--The most brilliant display of an aurora borealis in fifty years held Britons spellbound over a wide area of the country tonight. From 6:30 to 8:30 P.M. the people of London watched two magnificent arcs rising in the east and west, from which radiated pulsating beams like searchlights in dark red, greenish blue and purple.

During this period all transatlantic radio communication was interrupted, and it was not until 11:30 A.M. that normal service was resumed. From an airplane the display looked lke "a shimmering curtain of fire." A big spot had been noted on the sun during the weekend and some scientists anticipated that there would be an electrical disturbance of this kind.

One of the novel features of tonight's display was the vivid red glow. Londoners' last view of an aurora borealis was one night during a Zeppelin raid when it added terror to the dropping bombs.

Police stations, fire brigades and newspaper offices all over the country were inundated by calls tonight asking, "Where is the fire?" The phenomenon was seen as far south as Vienna and in Holland crowds awaiting the birth of the Princess Juliana's baby cheered it as a lucky omen.

The report then reports on various accounts of it from various places:

Londoners Thought City Afire
By The Associated Press.

LONDON, Jan. 25.--The aurora borealis, rarely seen in Southern or Western Europe, spread fear in parts of Portugal and Lower Austria tonight, while thousands of Britons were brought running into the streets in wonderment. The ruddy glow led many to think half of the city was ablaze. The Windsor Fire Department was called out in the belief that Windsor Castle was afire.

Superstitious folk of the Scottish lowlands shook their heads and declared the northern lights always spelled an ill-omen for Scotland.

The lights were clearly seen in Italy, Spain and even Gibraltar. The glow, bathing snow-clad mountaintops in Austria and Switzerland was a beautiful sight, but firemen turned out to chase non-existent fires.

Portuguese villagers rushed in fright from their homes, fearing the end of the world.

Short-wave radio connections between London and New York were disrupted by the electrical disturbance.

France and Swiss Alarmed.
By The Associated Press.

GRENOBLE, France, Jan. 25.--A huge blood-red beam of light which scientists said was an aurora borealis of exceptional amplitude tied up telephone systems in parts of France tonight and spread anxiety in numerous Swiss Alpine villages.

Emblazoned in the northern sky the light brought thousands of telephone calls to Swiss and French authorities asking whether it was a fire, war or the end of the world.

Scientists at the University of Grenoble said that a similar aurora borealis had not been seen in Western Europe since 1709.

Bermuda Witnesses Phenomenon
Special Cable to The New York Times.

HAMILTON, Bermuda, Jan. 25.--A brilliant exhibition of an aurora borealis brought all Bermudians out of their homes at 6:15 o'clock tonight to witness the phenomenon seen here only on the rarest occasions. The sky was brilliantly lightened with dark red streamers, flashing like searchlights. Many persons thought the light was caused by a ship afire at sea. Steamship agents took the precaution of checking with wireless stations to learn if there had been any SOS calls. The display lasted about three-quarters of an hour, the lights passing gradually into the north. It has been many years since such a phenomenon was witnessed here.

Such an event adds further plausibility of Samuel’s prophecy and the fulfilment thereof in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 1.

One can read the article itself at high resolution here, or the full page of the newspaper (again, at high resolution) here.