Earliest account of a solar storm disrupting tech contained a serious typo

For most of human history, our Sun’s occasional tantrums have been of little concern to those of us living on Earth’s surface. At most, the emissions of plasma crashing into our atmosphere might paint the sky in pretty shades of green or pink.

With the development of electrical networks in the mid-19th century came the potential for solar activity to impact our planet in a whole new way, as charged particles guided by our magnetic field could now induce surges in current through circuitry below and interfere with our communication.

While the threat of solar activity disrupting modern technology is an ever-pressing concern for us today, it’s a point of curiosity (and due diligence in scientific record-keeping) to accurately pinpoint the very first moment the Sun made a mess of our electronic chit-chat.

In 2013, Baylor University space historian William B. Cade found an anonymous report in an old...

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