Science: Great Aurora

In Portugal, terrified villagers rushed through the streets shouting "0 firn do mundo!" (the end of the world). In war-minded France, the cry was "C'est la guerre!" In Austria and elsewhere in Europe, kneeling peasants gibbered prayers. In Holland, merry celebrants hailed the vast curtains of red, orange, purple, green, blue and white light shifting and shimmering in the northern sky as a happy omen for the delivery of Princess Juliana (see p. 77). In London, which had not seen the aurora borealis since the dire night of a Zeppelin raid during the War, someone, thinking that Windsor Castle was on...

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