# Largest blackout ever? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 21, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-blackout-ever/196755 "2003-08-21T19:29:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-blackout-ever/196755/1 "2003-08-21T19:29:28Z")
Yeah, I know I’m a week late on this, but I’ve been doing other stuff. Sorry. Anyway, many news reports claimed that last week’s power blackout was the largest in history. But I have not found any figures to back up that claim. On all the maps I’ve seen, it looks pretty similar to how I remember the 1965 blackout. Maybe they’re going by number of people affected, but that would beat out '65 pretty easily even with a smaller area because we have so many more people now. So, does anyone know where I can find some comparative statistics? ---
**Author:** ![anewthought](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@anewthought](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anewthought)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-blackout-ever/196755/2 "2003-08-21T19:41:06Z")
It is based on # of people affected as every article I’ve seen opens up with “xxx millions of people without power” ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2003, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/largest-blackout-ever/196755/3 "2003-08-21T22:57:55Z")
Sure, but does the second sentence say “… while in 1965 only zzz millions were affected”? No…