Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

In Arizona, election workers trained with deepfakes to prepare for 2024

Biden back in the battleground state of Wisconsin

How Trump’s allies amplify his Truth Social messages to the wider world

Ask Amy: Relatives keep me giving me updates on my old family home

Carolyn Hax: Was it wrong to approach late wife’s pal for no-commitment sex?

Miss Manners: My roommate and I have opposite sleep schedules

What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign

Judge keeps tying Trump to possible intimidation

In court, Stormy Daniels pulled a Trump on Trump 

Why everyone’s mad at Apple’s new iPad ad

A college professor wants to use Section 230 against Big Tech

Commerce Department revokes more export licenses to China’s Huawei

RFK Jr’s ‘history lesson’ on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine flunks the fact test

The Trump-Biden battle over the 2017 tax cut

That time football legend, rig-driving eligible bachelor Biden was arrested

How Brittney Griner raised and keeps raising the profile of hostages held abroad

Middle East conflict live updates: Israeli officials criticize Biden’s threat to halt weapons over Rafah

Israel puts Rafah in the eye of the storm

In the campaign against Donald Trump, do the ends justify the means?

The next global crisis could come from the sun. We should prepare now.

The FTC’s noncompete clause rule goes too far

Dog hit by car loses leg, is adopted by firefighter who helped her

Postal worker finds WWII-era letters, drives 5 hours to deliver them

Strangers help Sesame Street puppeteer after heirloom necklace was stolen

Nationals finally run out of answers and fall to Orioles in 12 innings

These Nationals are pretty fun. They would be more fun with James Wood.

Nats go over .500 the hard way by beating the O’s and Corbin Burnes

Cruise worker charged with stabbing 3 with scissors on ship off Canada

France tries to shed its rude reputation ahead of the Olympics

Don’t be a jerk at the airport: A guide for headphones

Think you want a dog? Take our quiz to find out if you’re ready.

‘Look at the U.S.A.’: A photographer’s reflection on post-9/11 conflict

Trump trial live updates: Stormy Daniels spars with Trump lawyer during heated cross-examination

Former U.S. President Donald Trump appears at court in New York

Reporting on Earth’s changing climate and the search for solutions

See more coverage in your recommendations

Climate & environment

The Climate Coach newsletter

Climate alerts

John Duricka and Yuki Iwamura

New York City’s skyscrapers were barely visible, engulfed in air so thick “you could feel the bits of smog sticking to your face,” Bill Burke recalled.

While the hazy images bear a resemblance to Wednesday’s eerie orange skies as smoke from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/06/07/canada-wildfires-weather-air-quality/" target=_blank>Canadian wildfires</a> engulfs the city, Burke was recalling the “killer smog” of 1966, when a heavy cloud of sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide enveloped New York.

That year, the toxic smog — stemming mostly from industrial residues and power plants using coal — hovered for some three days, starting on Thanksgiving and prompting <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/11/25/82968740.html?pageNumber=1" target=_blank>a citywide alert</a> that ordered all incinerators to close and utility companies to use natural gas. People with cardiovascular and respiratory problems were urged to stay inside during what’s now considered one of the worst air-pollution episodes and environmental disasters in modern U.S. history.

‘It looks like Mars outside’: Smoke engulfs East Coast, upending daily life

Burke, who was 11 in 1966, was in New York City for a family wedding. He recalls being holed up at the hotel most of the time because after just a few minutes outside, they would have to “wash pollution off your face and hands,” he said.

“I hadn’t seen anything like it in my life before or since,” he said.

Now, nearly 57 years later, the thick haze blanketing the city is bringing back memories of the days when the Mamas &amp; the Papas and the Beatles were all the rage, Lyndon B. Johnson was president, and concerns about <a href="https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/18884/Podhora.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y" target=_blank>pollution and other environmental problems had just begun creeping</a> into the public’s consciousness. About four years later, Congress passed the landmark Clean Air Act, meant to reduce air pollution.

Amr Alfiky

Burke, who now lives in Rochester, N.Y., said that while there are parallels between the two events — “places and buildings that should be readily visible are obscured in the haze” — they’re not quite the same.

“Even as a child, I knew [the smog] was due to human activity,” he said, adding that this week’s haze reminded him of a trip he took to Wyoming in 2021, when Grand Teton National Park was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/07/18/national-parks-heat-fires/" target=_blank>obscured with smoke</a> and a campfire smell lingered in the air.

“The air feels different in that it doesn’t require me to wash my face as soon as I get back indoors,” Burke added.

Victor J. Blue

Christine Tailer said images out of New York City this week transported her to age 12, when she lived in a brownstone building with her family on the Lower East Side in 1966.

“The sky was so dusty, it’s what I remember most,” Tailer said. “You would look down the long streets of New York, and you would just see this dusty haze hanging over the city and couldn’t see off in the distance — a little bit like today.”

Tailer’s mom had suffered from respiratory problems since a bout with tuberculosis in the 1930s. Amid the toxic haze, she said, her mother’s health became a major concern — prompting her inventive father to take matters into his own hands.

Peter Tailer was a jack-of-all-trades buzzing with creativity, his daughter said. At 43, the self-employed patent attorney, photographer and building superintendent had dabbled with Stirling engines, crafted a four-seat bicycle for his family and sent hot-air balloons flying from the roof of their five-floor house.

So when the smog crept over the city and made it hard for his wife to breathe, Peter Tailer collected an assortment of parts to create an air-purifying machine he nicknamed “the Assemblage” — a name meant to be pronounced with a French accent “to make it fancy,” Tailer said.

Kept in a closed room, the Assemblage blew dirty air into a box about the size of a dining table that had water circulating inside of it. A pump pushed the water toward the top and made it shower down through a screen. The purified air would then flow through that trickling water and into a fan that forced it back out into the room.

“There was no air conditioning, so the air from outside was the air we breathed inside,” Tailer said. “So by doing this, we all think he kind of saved my mother.”

Both Peter and his wife, Geraldine, would go on to live long and happy lives, she added.

The smog that filled the city that holiday weekend proved fatal for some. A 1968 <a href="https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/20013P7R.txt?ZyActionD=ZyDocument&Client=EPA&Index=Prior%20to%201976&Docs=&Query=&Time=&EndTime=&SearchMethod=1&TocRestrict=n&Toc=&TocEntry=&QField=&QFieldYear=&QFieldMonth=&QFieldDay=&UseQField=&IntQFieldOp=0&ExtQFieldOp=0&XmlQuery=&File=D%3A%5CZYFILES%5CINDEX%20DATA%5C70THRU75%5CTXT%5C00000005%5C20013P7R.txt&User=ANONYMOUS&Password=anonymous&SortMethod=h%7C-&MaximumDocuments=1&FuzzyDegree=0&ImageQuality=r105g16/r105g16/x150y150g16/i600&Display=p%7Cf&DefSeekPage=x&SearchBack=ZyActionL&Back=ZyActionS&BackDesc=Results%20page&MaximumPages=1&ZyEntry=41" target=_blank>report from the U.S. Department of Health</a> said that between Nov. 24 and 30 in 1966, researchers found<b> </b>“an increase in death rate of approximately 24 deaths per day.” In 1967, the New York Times <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/10/27/82162296.html?pageNumber=56" target=_blank>reported</a> the smog had killed 168 people — and scientists worried about its lingering effects on survivors.

“Lung damage suffered during the period would probably be a contributing factor in diseases suffered by New Yorkers for years to come,” a scientist told the Times.

Smoke brings a warning: There’s no escaping climate’s threat to health

The smoggy episode became a wake-up call, prompting activists and officials to push for policies that control air pollution — resulting in the passage of the Air Quality Act in 1967 and, in 1970, the Clean Air Act, as well as the founding of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Since then, air quality has improved in American cities, but climate change has prompted concerns about carbon emissions — and the EPA’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/06/epa-climate-change-states-congress/" target=_blank>ability to curb them</a> following a 2022 Supreme Court <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1530_n758.pdf" target=_blank>decision</a>. The court limited the EPA’s ability to stem greenhouse gas emissions after deciding some federal regulations had exceeded the agency’s authority.

“Funny that this event directly precipitated the Clean Air Act and now we’re experiencing something similar while the Clean Air Act has since been gutted,” Dwight Rhinosoros, of the Eat the Rich podcast, <a href="https://twitter.com/rhinosoros/status/1666281919515074561" target=_blank>tweeted</a> alongside a 1966 photo of New York City blanketed in smog.

FSNE Journalism Contest, second place for news reporting (Spanish language), Florida Society of News Editors, 2020

ICPA Contest, second place for best podcast, Indiana Collegiate Press Association, 2021

R.V. Ley Journalism Award, for outstanding achievement and exceptional promise, John W. Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics and Democracy, 2021

University of Notre Dame, BA in political science and economics

María Luisa Paúl is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. She joined The Post as an intern on the General Assignment desk and has previously reported at the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald. 


María Luisa Paúl

washpost

Smoke in New York City evokes memories of 1966 ‘killer smog’

the-washington-post

Smoke blanketing New York City evokes memories of 1966 ‘killer smog’

name

prism://prism.query/site,/national/morning-mix?limit=20

Morning Mix

The Washington Post's Morning Mix blog covers stories from all over the nation and world.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/national&limit=20

National

The Washington Post's national news coverage. Get the latest national news, featuring national security, science and the courts. Read breaking national news headlines from across the U.S.

prism://prism.query/site,/local/retropolis?limit=20

Retropolis

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/climate-environment&limit=20

Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter and get advice for life on our changing planet, in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.

Climate

Washington Post coverage of climate and environment-related issues.

prism://prism.query/tag,climate202&limit=3

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-202-newsletters/the-climate-202/

Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter and get advice for life on our changing planet, in your inbox every Tuesday.