The colossal power failure that swept through half of India early Tuesday afternoon, causing disruptions in the lives of hundreds of millions of people, has earned India a new and dubious distinction: Host of the World's Largest Blackout.
Some 600 million people were estimated to be affected after power was halted in 11 states in northern and eastern India and in the country's capital of 16 million people. Imagine most of Europe without power, or more people powerless than the populations of the United States, Mexico and Central America combined.
While the numbers are colossal, disruptions in many peoples daily lives were kept to a minimum. After all, India, a nation of 1.2 billion people, sees frequent local power cuts that last several hours a day in some parts of the country. So when Tuesday's unplanned power failure occurred, following on the heels of another power failure the previ ous day, the usual backup of generators and inverters that households and businesses privately own kicked in.
Here some other memorable blackouts, listed in chronological order:
Canada and northeastern United States, 1965: Toronto and New York were plunged into darkness as a blackout strikes Ontario and the northeastern United States, affecting 30 million people.
New York, 1977: The familiar shapes of the world's most famous skyline were all blotted out by darkness on the night of July 13. The blackout lasted alittle more than 24 hours, a period in which 1,000 fires were reported, 1,600 stores were damaged in looting and rioting and 3,700 people were arrested.
United States, 2003: A surge of electricity to western New York and Canada touched off a series of power failures and blackouts that left parts of at least eight states in the Northeast and the Midwest without electricity.
Italy, 2003: One of the worst blackouts in Italy's history left mos t of the country without electricity for hours, interrupting rail and air traffic, jamming emergency operator phone lines and forcing thousands of Romans into makeshift refuges in subway stations. The power loss left nearly 57 million people in the dark.
Indonesia, 2005: About 100 million people, about half of Indonesia's population, were affected by a power outage, which affected residences and businesses and snarled traffic in Jakarta, the capital.
