1927: A London schoolteacher instructs his students not to view the sun with the naked eye but to use instead two dense photographic negatives sandwiched together to protect their eyes. (Kirby/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
In a little over a week, sky gazers across North America will be treated to a total solar eclipse, turning day into night for tens of millions of people from Mexico to Canada.
An eclipse occurs when the moon comes between the Earth and the sun. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon completely blocks the sun.
That’s why there is a lot of anticipation for the April 8 total solar eclipse, which will be at least partially visible in all 50 states (except Alaska) and entirely visible in 13 — from Texas to Maine — along the so-called path of totality.
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In the meantime, enjoy this collection of historical images of people around the world looking at solar eclipses, total and partial, from 1907 to the present day.
1907: People observe a solar eclipse near the Cherniaevo Station in the Tian-Shan mountains above the Saliuktin mines, Golodnaia Steppe, Kyrgyzstan. (Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
1920: Schoolchildren and their teacher watch a solar eclipse in England. (Culture Club/Getty Images)
1921: Women observe a solar eclipse in Paris. (Corbis via Getty Images)
1923: A crowd in a California town observes a total solar eclipse. (Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis via Getty Images)
1927: Nurses observe a solar eclipse through special dark glasses in England. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)
1927: A large crowd of people observe a solar eclipse from the grounds of Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, England. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)
1936: An amateur astronomer photographs an eclipse of the sun from the middle of a road. (Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
1936: Visitors to the Treptower astronomical observatory in Berlin view an eclipse. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
1936: People view an eclipse in London. (E. Dean/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
1948: People look at an eclipse through cardboard in Sydney, Australia. (Norman Brown/Sydney Morning Herald/Fairfax Media via Getty Images)
1973: An astronomer with Educational Expeditions International in Mauritania's desert uses astronomical equipment to view a total solar eclipse. (Jonathan Blair/Corbis via Getty Images)
1991: A multiple-exposure photograph shows the progress of a solar eclipse over Xochicalco, Mexico. (Omar Torres/AFP via Getty Images)
1995: A Cambodian monk, wearing safety glasses, watches the beginning of a full solar eclipse. (Doug Niven/AFP via Getty Images)
1996: Hundreds of people observe an eclipse in Toulouse, France, (Gabriel Bouys/AFP via Getty Images)
1998: The corona of the sun is visible around the moon during a total solar eclipse as seen in Guadeloupe. (Space Frontiers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
1998: Men in suits watch a total solar eclipse visible through special glasses in downtown Bogota, Colombia. (Meredith Davenport/AFP via Getty Images)
1998: A man looks at an eclipse through a cardboard box in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Thony Belizaire/AFP via Getty Images)
1999: A woman views an eclipse outside a mosque in Isfahan, Iran. (Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)
1999: People view a solar eclipse in Vauville, France. (Michel Lambert/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
1999: Hundreds of people view an eclipse from a hillside in étretat, France. (Yves Forestier/Sygma via Getty Images)
1999: Children view an eclipse from Eclipse Road in London. (Fiona Hanson/PA Images via Getty Images)
1999: Peruvian sisters take a break during their pilgrimage to view the solar eclipse in front of Notre Dame de Lourdes in France. (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images)
1999: Eclipse watchers in Beirut find novel means of protecting ther eyesight while viewing the last total solar eclipse of the 20th century. (Oussama Ayoub/AFP via Getty Images)
2001: A young boy observers a partial eclipse with protective lenses in Guatemala City. (David Herrera/AFP via Getty Images)
2001: A woman observes a solar eclipse through a protective shield in Puntarenas, Costa Rica. (Teresita Chavarria/AFP via Getty Images)
2005: A woman looks at an annular eclipse through a plastic bottle in Rabat, Morocco. (Abdelhak Senna/AFP via Getty Images)
2005: People use protective glasses to view an annular eclipse at the Planetarium in Madrid. (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
2005: A person observes the eclipse in Aiges-Mortes, France. (Dominique Faget/AFP via Getty Images)
2009: A man observes the solar eclipse in Shenyang, China. (ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)
2009: People use special filters to view a partial solar eclipse setting over a beach in Hong Kong. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
2009: People observe a total solar eclipse in Chengdu, China. (China Photos/Getty Images)
2009: This multiple-exposure image shows the various stages of the total solar eclipse as seen from Guwahati, India. (Biju Boro/AFP via Getty Images)
2009: A group of children observe a total solar eclipse in Wenzhou, China. (China Photos/Getty Images)
2010: Residents of a village in Nairobi, Kenya, share a pair of dark goggles as they look at a solar eclipse. (Simon Mainia/AFP via Getty Images)
2010: People observe an annular eclipse in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, South India. (EyesWideOpen/Getty Images)
2012: People react as they see the "ring of fire" or annular solar eclipse in Kanarraville, Utah. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)
2012: The "ring of fire" annular solar eclipse is photographed in Kanarraville, Utah. (Robyn Beck/AFP/GettyImages)
2017: People use special glasses to watch the beginning of a solar eclipse in Cross Plains, Tenn. (Danny Murphy/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
2017: People watch a total solar eclipse from atop a hiking trail in Oregon's Painted Hills. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)
2017: A composite image shows the solar eclipse from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
2019: A man looks up at a total solar eclipse in La Higuera, Chile. (Esteban Felix/AP)
2020: A man dressed as Santa Claus uses special protective glasses to observe the solar eclipse in Bariloche, Patagonia, Argentina. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)
2021: People view a total solar eclipse from Union Glacier Camp in Antarctica. (Felipe Trueba/ Imagen Chile via AP)
