The last time a total solar eclipse visible from New York City (and Connecticut, Rhode Island) was on Saturday, January 24, 1925, just after 9 AM. It was a cold, clear day, and the city was covered by snow. Observers were stationed at every other intersection between 72nd and 135th Streets to determine the most southern part of the 'belt of totality'. Totality could only be observed above 95th to 97th Streets, so residents of Brooklyn, southern Queens, Staten Island, and much of Manhattan missed the full spectacle. Nevertheless, Millions of people witnessed the Eclipse. They crowded onto roofs, bridges, and the upper floors of skyscrapers. Open spaces in the city's northern reaches were mobbed by eclipse gazers, who braved the 9-degree cold to watch as the moon's shadow gradually cast the city into morning twilight. Streetlights across the city flickered to life. Skyscrapers blinked in empty streets. At the Bronx Zoo, herds of deer raced in panic. At 9:11, the sun disappeared completely. ''As the black ball of the moon settled over the fiery sphere of the sun, the brilliantly shimmering corona came into sharp relief against the dull sky.'' The sun reappeared about 30 seconds later.

Other Links:
Solar Eclipse Newsletter Vol 6(2), Feb. 2001 (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Eclipse Home Page by NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center
Path of the 1925 solar eclipse at Dave Owen Home Page


Snippets:
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Video: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1988). Wonderworks Family Movie. Award-winning BBC production. Very close to the book.
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Three famous men died all died on the same day, on Friday, November 22, 1963: John F. Kennedy (assassinated), Aldous Huxley, and Clive Staples Lewis.
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