History

This is part of NASA's official eclipse web site. It contains maps and tables for solar eclipses of historical interest.

For centuries, solar eclipses have captured the imagination of people and cultures around the world. Even though most believed that solar eclipses brought death and destruction, many scholars have tried their best to understand and predict them.

Total Solar Eclipse 2017 - On Monday, August 21, 2017, all of North America will be treated to an eclipse of the sun. Anyone within the path of totality can see one of nature’s most awe inspiring sights - a total solar eclipse. This path, where the moon will completely cover the sun and the sun's tenuous atmosphere - the corona - can be seen, will stretch from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. Observers outside this path will still see a partial solar eclipse where the moon covers part of the sun's disk. NASA created this website to provide a guide to this amazing event. Here you will find activities, events, broadcasts, and resources from NASA and our partners across the nation.

As best as we can determine, the earliest record of a solar eclipse occurred over four millennia ago. In China, it was believed that the gradual blotting out of the sun was caused by a dragon who was attempting to devour the sun, and it was the duty of the court astronomers to shoot arrows, beat drums and raise whatever cacophony they could to frighten the dragon away.

This page is part of EclipseWise.com's Catalog of Solar Eclipses of Historical Interest. It contains a list covering 100 years of solar eclipses.

For thousands of years, historians have viewed solar eclipses as omens of things to come. One eclipse even helped physicists to confirm the bending of light predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity.

For millennia, humans have used solar eclipses to learn about the universe. We are still learning.

The total solar eclipse of 2017 will be the first in a century to cross the continental U.S., but more than a dozen others have passed over parts of the nation since the 1860s.