}); Power was slowly restored over the next day, with the entire city online by 10:39 p.m. A building in Brooklyn burns as a result of arson. That blackout affected much of New York City and led to arson and looting in NYC neighborhoods. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Despite the looting, some New Yorkers took to the streets to help direct traffic. (Associated Press) Article Forty years ago today, on July 13, 1977, a few minutes after 9:30. In 2018, an Uber autonomous vehicle fatally struck a pedestrian. This all comes after two mystery tipsters phoned detectives with information about who shot Ciscone calling with tantalizing clues on the 20th anniversary of his slaying, but hanging up without revealing the name of the alleged shooter. Koch would go on to win the general election. Six feet, maybe 250, 260 [pounds]. Many had to be stuffed into overcrowded cells, precinct basements, and other makeshift holding pens. We've been needlessly subjected to a night of terror in many communities that have been wantonly looted and burned. WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. [3], Looting and vandalism were widespread in New York City, hitting 31 different neighborhoods. We all used to hang out over there, said Mildred. The chaos was a marked contrast to the can-do attitude of New Yorkers in the previous great blackout of 1965. One shot hit him. }); Stevie Wonder (at piano) jams with Stephen Stills (with drum), Stephanie Mills, and Teddy Pendergrass (behind Wonder) for New York secretary Mary Ann Cummings and 300 guests on her birthday at Studio 54. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. The 25-hour outage began around 9:30 p.m. on July 13th, after a bolt of lightning struck an electrical substation in Westchester. One photo showed a vandal helping himself to gems at jewelry repair shop on Utica Avenue in Crown Heights. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. [Andrew] ran after the guy, [who] started shooting. She wasnt there but said Andrew told her what happened. They couldnt have been more wrong. Some people eating in restaurants made their way onto the streets when the power went out, so did the air conditioning. The events of July 13, 1977, as 'Hunters' show us, are not all fiction. 2023 Cond Nast. An economic decline, coupled with rising crime rates. Disclaimer : The views expressed in this article belong to the writer and are not necessarily shared by MEAWW. In one of those bizarre coincidences that's almost too strange to be true, the blackout that affected a large swath of Midtown Manhattan on Saturday . Very respectful of his elders. Around 7a.m. on July 14, a section of Queens became the first area to get power back, followed shortly afterward by Lenox Hill, Manhattan; the neighboring Yorkville area on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, though, was one of the last areas to get power back that Thursday evening. It was not until the next morning that power began being restored to those areas affected. Andrew Ciscone died in 2002. The light-filled city became a black pit. People really werent willing to talk about it, even to this day.. It gave him a cut across the side of his head, right above his eyebrow.. We've received your submission. The Real Story of the New York City Blackout of 1977 | by Gena Vazquez | New York Voice | Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. Traffic lights went dark, elevators stalled, subways ground to halt. There is a popular story that during the blackout numerous looters stole DJ equipment from electronics stores, and this helped spark the hip hop genre -- but the only evidence is some speculation by two early DJs, DJ Disco Wiz and Curtis Fisher, who made the suggestion in an interview for Jim Fricke and filmmaker Charlie Ahearn, who printed it in their book Yes Yes Y'all. McDonough said that three years ago a junkie from the neighborhood got arrested and offered an account of the killing, which didnt match what McDonough had learned of it and couldnt be corroborated. Refresh the page, check Medium 's. ", "Uncut Interviews David Bowie on Berlin The Real 'Uncut' Version", "Power Outage on Manhattan's West Side Affects 42,000 Customers", "Dj vu: 1977 blackout also happened on July 13", 1977 section contains airchecks from the blackout, Archive of accounts and reports relating to the blackout, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_York_City_blackout_of_1977&oldid=1137556014, History of the Northeastern United States, Riots and civil disorder in New York City, Articles needing additional references from July 2015, All articles needing additional references, Articles needing additional references from July 2011, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 07:13. The tunnel crossings were closed down. The sweltering streets became a battleground, where, per the Post, even the looters were being mugged., The mayhem of 1977 came as a night-and-day contrast with New Yorks previous citywide blackout, in 1965. Three lightning bolts. By signing up you are agreeing to our, See How the Hollywood Sign Has Changed Over Time. Your email address will not be published. The sweltering streets became a battleground where several people were mugging even the looters. Check here if you would like to receive subscription offers and other promotions via email from TIME group companies. At 8:55p.m., there was another lightning strike at the Sprain Brook substation in Yonkers, which took out two additional critical transmission lines. When we first talked to him, he told us a detailed story of what happened that night, but I dont think it was true. At first they thought the outage was local and caused by something they had done, but realized when they heard stores closing that it was citywide and took advantage of the community's vulnerability to steal a mixing board from a local business. We'll look back at one of the defining moments in the city's psyche that began 45 years ago tonight the 1977 blackout. Within an hour, most of the citys electrical grid went dead. NEW YORK (CNN) -- For many New Yorkers, the blackout of 1977 is a dark memory. } eventAction: 'click_adunit' reporters on a platform technologically tailored to meet the needs of the modern reader. For 25 hours, the darkness led to total chaos, with widespread looting and fires in the streets. ConEd called the shutdown an "act of God," enraging Mayor Beame, who charged that the utility was guilty of "gross negligence. Absolutely a one-in-a . . If so, please share it with your friends and family to help spread the word. On Wednesday, July 13, 1977, a series of lightning struck on the power lines and infrastructure led to a cascade of shutdowns, power failures, and overloads. Blackout: Trailer. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. Many had to be stuffed into overcrowded cells, precinct basements and other makeshift holding pens. pg.acq.push(function() { Seen from across the river in New Jersey, only the base of the World Trade Centers twin towers flickered with light. Then lightning struck, and the city went dark for real. The 1977 Blackout in New York City Happened Exactly 42 Years Ago, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/14/nyregion/1977-blackout-photos.html. In the midst of the blackout, a restaurant owner writes a sign to advise customers that there is no food or lights inside, but lots of liquor. He wasnt against practicing his skills on anyone stupid enough to harass the local girls or cross over from the Red Hook projects to hang out on his turf. In Brooklyn, youths were seen backing up cars to targeted stores, tying ropes around the stores grates, and using their cars to pull the grates away before looting the store. New York was already in a financial crisis with high unemployment rates creating even more poverty and devastating many communities. Turn food scraps into compost for your garden with one of these indoor, odor-free devices. At one point, two blocks of Broadway in Brooklyn, which separates Bushwick from Bedford-Stuyvesant, were on fire. Opportunistic thieves grabbed whatever they could get their hands on, from luxury cars to sink stoppers and clothespins, according to the New York Post. And yet, some went about their evenings, which for some lucky people at Rockefeller Center in 1977 meant a stop at an ice cream truck. Firemen fight a blaze above a row of looted stores in New Yorks Brooklyn borough, July 14, 1977, the day after the power failure. In all, 1,616 stores were either looted or damaged during the blackout. 3. These steps had to be completed sequentially and took many minutes. [10] The Yankees were on the road at Milwaukee; less than a week later, Yankee Stadium hosted the All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 19. There were 550 police officers injured in the mayhem, and 4,500 looters were arrested.[3]. Morning broke hot and humid over New York on July 13, 1977, at the outset of what became one of the longest heat waves in the city's history: The temperature would top 100 degrees three times. In Brooklyn, pedestrians stand on a street corner in the wake of the blackout. ga('ads.send', { During the now-notorious 25-hour blackout, which affected all five boroughs, some 1,000 fires were set and 1,600 stores looted. He didnt deserve to die, said the victims sister, Mildred Ciscone. The 25-hour outage began around 9:30 p.m. on July 13th, after a bolt of lightning struck an electrical substation in Westchester. The 1977 blackout also caused widespread transportation disruption, including at Grand Central Terminal. How many babies were born 9 months later? A restaurant owner updates the specials of the day during the blackout. [4] A loose locking nut combined with a slow-acting upgrade cycle prevented the breaker from reclosing and allowing power to flow again. [citation needed], In addition to the massive looting and violence that had accompanied it, there was also one homicide. Afterward, police hunted for clues, suspecting that Dominick had been targeted for crossing the wrong people. On the night of Wednesday, July 13th, 1977, the power went out in all of New York City and parts of Westchester County, leaving eight million people in the dark. Par Three was the popular watering hole. Police officers and passersby stand in front of a looted store in Brooklyn. It was not until 10:39p.m. on July 14 that the entire city's power was back online. Our best hope the next time Earth is in the crosshairs? When a flash of lightning zapped the city on July 13, 1977, panic hit New York. Not long after, another lightning strike took out two more power lines, and when the Ravenswood 3 power plant in Queens went down, the city fell dark. hitType: 'event', You can unsubscribe at any time. Store owners guard their damaged storefront against further looting. Maybe that had something to do with it.. New York City lay helpless today, stiller than on a holiday, waiting for Consolidated Edison to knit together the power system that unraveled and plunged 9 million people into . What Dallas looked like in the 1950s Through these Fascinating Historical Photos, What Montreal looked in the 1960s Through these Fascinating Vintage Photos, Washington D.C in the 1860s: What U.S. Capital looked like during and after the Civil War, What Austin, Texas looked like in the 1970s Through These Fascinating Photos, Stunning Photos from the Expo 1967 in Montreal that brought 50 Million Visitors, Phoenix in the 1930s: A Photographic Journey Through a City's Great Depression Era. It was caused by stress on the system after a series of lightning storms in Westchester County, but human and mechanical error, per the New York Times, exacerbated the issue. The sun rises on the darkened Manhattan skyline during a citywide blackout. The Best Password Managers to Secure Your Digital Life. gads_event = event; NEW YORK - On July 13, 1977, 45 years ago Wednesday, a major blackout hit New York City. It remains to be seen what the impact of this weekends outage will bebut luckily, it hasnt spread throughout the city, and some of the lights are already coming back on. The persons were very scared, he said. All at exactly 8:28 p.m. on the 13th of July 1977, striking from a line of sodden black thunderclouds rolling across northern Westchester County. window.adsContainer = {"positionAfterTitle":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle5_Rel_Newrev","isOrganicUserAd":true,"max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position2":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_After_Title_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position3":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Below_Next_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position4":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position5":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle1_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position6":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle2_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position7":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle3_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position8":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle4_Rel_Newrev","max_width":300,"max_height":250},"position9":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle5_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position10":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle6_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position11":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle7_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position12":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle8_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position13":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle9_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position14":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle10_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position15":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle11_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"position16":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_Middle12_Rel_Newrev","max_width":336,"max_height":280},"positionTop":{"code":"Article_Desktop_970x250_Header_Rel","isOrganicUserAd":false,"max_width":970,"max_height":250},"positionBottom":{"code":"Article_Desktop_Sidebar_Bottom_Rel_Newrev","isOrganicUserAd":true,"max_width":300,"max_height":600},"positionBottomRight":{"code":"Article_Desktop_300x250_After_Title_Rel_Newrev","isOrganicUserAd":true,"max_width":336,"max_height":280}} Still others pointed out that the 1977 blackout came after businesses had closed and their owners had gone home, while in 1965 the blackout occurred during the day and many merchants were still at their properties. But in Carroll Gardens, no one was particularly worried. While 550 police officers were injured in the mayhem, 4,500 looters were arrested. The Buchanan South substation converted the 345,000 volts of electricity originating from the 900MW Indian Point nuclear generating station to lower voltage for commercial use. Your email address will not be published. Let us help. The operating entities in New York fully investigated the blackout, its related causes, and the operator actions. Yankees manager Billy Martin, and the team's strutting superstar, Reggie Jackson, nearly come to blows. July 14, 1977 dawned hot and humid in New York City. ga('create', 'UA-67136960-15', 'auto', 'ads'); As Russia's failures mount in its war against Ukraine, can Biden prevent an isolated Putin from doing the unthinkable? A second lightning strike caused the loss of two 345 kV transmission lines, subsequent reclose of only one of the lines, and the loss of power from the nuclear plant at Indian Point. And in the biggest mass arrest in city history, 3,776 people were thrown in the jug. Anyone can read what you share. eventAction: 'click_ads' The Long Island operators did not notice the drop in 115kV cable loadings and went ahead with opening their 345kV tie to New York City. Celebrities whove frequented the area within a block or two of that corner include Jay-Z and Beyonce, Naomi Watts, Paul Giamatti and Gabriel Byrne. },false) Opportunistic thieves grabbed whatever they could get their hands on, from luxury cars to sink stoppers and clothespins, according to the New York Post. Nor the increase. The Brooklyn Bridge and skyline of lower Manhattan remain dark as the sun sets. Switch to the dark mode that's kinder on your eyes at night time. document.querySelector("#google_image_div").addEventListener('click',function(){ The earlier outage affected far more people (25 million, spanning New York and seven other states, plus two Canadian provinces, compared to the 9 million people in New York and its northern suburbs who lost power in 77, per TIME). Here is a case that is 20 years old, Talbot told the New York Times in 1998. Heres what we want to talk about. But there was just one murder victim that dark night: Dominick Ciscone, 17. Then as Rolling Stones Paint It Black plays in the background, you see NYC in a state of chaos, people running amok, the anti-socials causing mayhem and turning the biggest city of America into a massive riot ground. 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