The biggest solar storm ever recorded

A unique characteristic of the solar storm of 1859 was  the speed with which it had crossed the 150 million miles that separates us from the sun. In just under 18 hours after the observation of its manifestation on the sun's surface by Richard Carrington, it had already reached the Earth's magnetosphere.

Throughout North America and Europe, the operation of telegraph systems was disrupted during the solar storm. Some telegraph operators had received electric shocks. In some places, the telegraph paper  had caught on fire. Even with the power batteries disconnected at both ends of telegraph lines, it was possible to send messages, only with the induced current  in the copper wires.

The whole sky of the northern hemisphere was illuminated by the aurora Borealis. They were so bright that it was possible to read a newspaper at night. The event was so exceptional that the light spectacle was visible to Puerto Rico, Cuba and Hawaii. A phenomenon usually reserved for observers in northern latitudes.