29 May 19

100 years ago today was the "great" solar eclipse of 1919. "Few eclipses have had more impact on modern history than the one that occurred on May 29, 1919, more than six minutes of darkness sweeping across South America and across the Atlantic to Africa." Its impact came through photographs taken by British astronomer Arthur Eddington, proving that gravity bends light -- which was a crucial prediction of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity! The context for this discovery is presented gloriously in the 2008 film "Einstein and Eddington," which is available through HBO and Amazon Prime (but not free).