August 14 and 15, 2003 - The northeastern U.S. and southern Canada suffered the worst power blackout in history. In areas where power remained off after nightfall, the Most places restored power by midnight, as early as 6 p.m. on August 14.Within the area affected, about 200,000 people continued to have power – in the The load on any power network must be immediately matched by its supply and its ability to transmit that power. Any System operators are responsible for ensuring that power supply and loads remain balanced, and for keeping the system within safe operational limits such that no single fault can cause the system to fail. Abraham stated, "The absence of enforceable reliability standards creates a situation in which there are limits in terms of federal level punishment. Four million customers of the Detroit water system in eight counties were under a Passenger screenings at affected airports ceased. In the meantime, all available hydro-electric plants (as well as many coal- and oil-fired plants) were brought online, bringing some electrical power to the areas immediately surrounding the plants by the morning of August 15. Any ice cream in frozen storage also had to be quickly served to any and all passers by. Areas affected extended from New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey west to Michigan, and from Ohio north to Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario. In others, backup generation systems failed. With the power fluctuations on the grid, power plants automatically went into "safe mode" to prevent damage in the case of an overload. In some places, citizens even took it upon themselves to mitigate the effects of the outage, by assisting elderly neighbors or helping to direct traffic in the absence of working traffic lights.In New York City alone, the estimated cost of the blackout was more than $500 million.On Kodiak Island, Grigory Shelikhov, a Russian fur trader, founds Three Saints Bay, the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska. Mary was forced to flee on her own when he refused, but she was On August 14, 1917, as World War I enters its fourth year, China abandons its neutrality and declares war on Germany. 4:39 Shortly after 4 p.m.

On August 14, 2003, large portions of the Midwest and Northeast United States and Ontario, Canada, experienced an electric power blackout. At least two fatalities were linked to the use of flames to provide light, and many nonfatal fires also resulted from the use of The Baltimore-Washington area was not affected other than transportation scheduling.A local controversy ensued in the days after the blackout, when the federal government ordered power companies to energize the About 2.3 million households and businesses were affected, including almost all of Over 540,000 homes and businesses were without power.

Tourists' hotel rooms were blacked out except the hallways and most of the restaurants in lobbies gave out free food to guests. At one point a 7-hour wait developed for trucks crossing the While some commuters were able to find alternate sleeping arrangements, many were left stranded in New York and slept in parks and on the steps of public buildings. of the causes of the August 14, 2003 blackout and has recommended actions to minimize the likelihood and scope of similar events in the future. Homes and businesses both in the affected area and in nearby areas were requested to limit power usage until the grid was back to full power. It was sound financial advice that McCartney may have come to regret giving Terrorist Illich Ramirez Sanchez, long known as Carlos the Jackal, is captured in Khartoum, Sudan, by French intelligence agents. This was mainly due to the loss of backup power at the cellular sites where generators ran out of fuel. As a result, gasoline prices were expected to rise approximately 10 cents/gallon (3¢/L) in the United States. Half of the affected part of Ontario had power by the morning of August 15, though even in areas where it had come back online, some services were still disrupted or running at lower levels. The New Jersey-based internet operations of Large numbers of factories were closed in the affected area, and others outside the area were forced to close or slow work because of supply problems and the need to conserve energy while the grid was being stabilized. "In February 2004, the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force released their final report, placing the causes of the blackout into four groups:Unprocessed events queued up after the alarm system failure and the primary The following is the blackout's sequence of events on August 14, 2003With the power fluctuations on the grid, power plants automatically went into "safe mode" to prevent damage in the case of an overload. Gibson overcame numerous childhood ailments—including rickets, asthma and a heart President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935. Many gas stations were unable to pump fuel due to lack of electricity.

Beginning at 4:10 p.m. FDR It was during their collaboration on 1983’s “Say Say Say” that former Beatle Paul McCartney is said to have advised King of Pop Michael Jackson to invest some of his enormous wealth in music publishing. The high ambient temperature increased energy demand, as people across the region turned on fans and air conditioning. In New York, flights were cancelled even after power had been restored to the airports because of difficulties accessing "electronic-ticket" information. In New York City, the police department, out in full force, actually recorded about 100 fewer arrests than average. Even though Japan’s War Council, urged by Emperor Hirohito, had already submitted a formal declaration of On August 14, 1971, St. Louis Cardinals ace Bob Gibson throws the first no-hitter of his storied career. Telephone networks generally remained operational, but the increased demand triggered by the blackout left many circuits overloaded. Later that night, Blandy’s daughter Mary offered one of the family’s servants a large sum of money to help her get to France immediately. This caused the power lines to sag as higher currents heated the lines. The Forty thousand police officers and the entire fire department were called in to maintain order.

American and Canadian representatives pointed fingers at each other, while politicians took the opportunity to point out major flaws in the region’s outdated power grid. Illuminated billboards were largely dormant for the week following the blackout, and many stores had only a portion of their lights on.