In between the time this was written and its publication we had a solar eclipse, and we are all talking about it and how we watched it and how it felt.
Maybe.
If some of those conspiracy theories surrounding the eclipse are true then we all could be dead or facing the final apocalypse or prison of the Chinese or our own government.
What are some of the top theories:
- Lizard men will come out of the darkness. Yeah.
- Seven towns named Ninevah will be in the eclipse path filling some kind of prophecy since the Ninevah of the Bible was considered an evil town. To begin with there are only six town in the United States named Ninevah. Only Ninevah, Ohio, and Ninevah, Ind., are in the path.
- The Chinese will follow the eclipse into the country since that is the way their spy balloon went. Wrong. The balloon went west to east, and the eclipse is going south to north.
- Animals will go insane. Maybe but it is really only confusion by the change from day to night back to day in a few short minutes causing that.
- It could become cold and windy which some feel is God casting a pall on earth. Wrong. This is just nature for it to be colder and perhaps windier during periods of darkness.
- Radio and telephone signals may be affected. Very possible but they also quickly clear up.
- The eclipse will make the whole world go dark from three to five days.
- The government is planning to institute martial law since they have been activating guardsmen. No, this is just for crowd control if needed since some small towns will have their populations skyrocket because of people coming in to see the eclipse.
- Then there is the great 48 theory people say the east coast earthquake was a 4.8 on the Richter Scale, they say to read Exodus 4:8, read all books chapter 4 and verse 8 in the Bible. A stretch? My birth year was 48 is that special?
There are a lot of bizarre ideas about the eclipse but for me it could be or was the best day of my life. Why? I because I woke up in the morning and I was still alive.
One great eclipse story from the 1904 eclipse, the last total eclipse to hit Ohio was recounted in a story in the Springfield Sun.
Quoting from the story in the Sun:
“Before the April 8 solar eclipse happens, let’s take a look at the last time this area experienced a total solar eclipse 218 years ago.
“Some historians say that the 1806 Eclipse contributed to the start of the War of 1812. And an interesting story that is.
“The total eclipse on June 13, 1806 is also known as the Tecumseh Eclipse.
“The year 1806 was a turbulent time in Ohio and the Northwest Territory immediately to its west and north. Although Ohio had become a state in 1803, the northwest corner of the state belonged to the Shawnee and other tribes. The Greenville Treaty had allowed for them to live there peacefully. A cautious peace existed.
“But things were different next door in the Indiana Territory. General William Henry Harrison in Vincennes was having problems with a group of Native Americans led by Tecumseh and his brother Tenskwatawa (The Prophet).”
“Tecumseh had refused to sign the Greenville Treaty in 1795 and wanted to fight to push all settlers back east. He was urging other tribes to join him in a mighty coalition. The Prophet had hundreds of devotees who followed his every word, and the crowd was growing.
“In spring of 1806, Harrison was so fed up with Tenskwatawa’s theatrics that were disrupting the peace that he sent a letter to the two Shawnee brothers.”
“In his letter, Harrison wrote: “If he (the Prophet) is really a prophet, ask him to cause the Sun to stand still or the Moon to alter its course, the rivers to cease to flow or the dead to rise from their graves.”
“According to accounts in “The Frontiersman” and “Sorrow in the Heart” by Allan W. Eckert, this is how it happened:
“When the letter was received by the brothers, they met alone then later emerged with an answer.
“The Prophet told his followers that in exactly 50 days he would make the moon cover the sun and it would be as dark as night. The word spread quickly to all the tribes in the region. The Prophet had promised to prove his power.”
“Just before noon on June 13, 1806, the Great Eclipse of 1806 began. No one on the frontier had ever seen anything like that before. Standing in front of his cabin, The Prophet had made the moon block the sun.
“The entire dramatic event was awe-inspiring to his followers. Those who once doubted The Prophet now knew for sure that he spoke with authority and his predictions were real. Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh gained greatly in power.
“And the situation between Harrison and the two Shawnee leaders dramatically worsened. Eventually this growing animosity led to the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, which led to the War of 1812.
“Before writing his letter, Harrison had missed the repeated printed announcements of the upcoming eclipse in the newspapers of places like Lexington, Kentucky (on June 25, 1805). Newspapers at that time were shared with others and carried by flatboats and wagons. Even old news was valued.
“Tecumseh, who was an avid reader, might have caught the printed announcement in any number of publications.
“Accounts in the Virginia Argus in Richmond (Oct. 27 and Nov. 7, 1804, and March 27 and April 10, 1805), the Annapolis Maryland Gazette (Feb. 7, 1805), in addition to the Lexington newspaper talked about the eclipse.”
A special thank you to Pam Cottrel a contributing writer who wrote the story from which I stole quite liberally because the story illustrates how foolish many of today’s conspiracy theories are.
Personally, I think about an eclipse we had in Charlottesville, Va., when I was working at the Daily Progress newspaper. I was pretty good friends with Lawson Marshall the editor and I went into his office and declared if I didn’t get a raise I would turn the sun off.
He told me to get out.
A little late when the eclipse was going on a beam of light came though the skylight and lit on a can of Zud cleanser sitting on the universal desk (that’s the desk the page layout editors work at while producing the newspaper) and a couple of the editors bowed toward it getting everybody to bow to the “Zud God.”
It was just then that Lawson walked out of his office, looked at the editors bowing and said, “don’t tell me I don’t want to know.”
So if you followed one of those apocalyptic theories don’t tell me I don’t want to know.
And if it came true you probably aren’t reading this.
Until next time stay safe but don’t live life in a bubble.
