For 155 years, scientists believed a solar storm delayed a train in Exeter, England, in 1841, but the railway did not exist until 1846; researchers now say the storm and the 16-minute delay really happened in 1848

A long-standing scientific narrative regarding a 19th-century solar storm has been corrected after researchers identified a significant chronological error. For over a century and a half, experts assumed a geomagnetic event in 1841 caused a sixteen-minute train delay in Exeter, England. However, this timeline was impossible because the specific railway line involved had not yet been constructed at that time. New investigations, reported by ScienceDaily in late 2026, have redated the incident to October 18, 1848. The team reached this conclusion by cross-referencing historical railway documentation, contemporary newspaper reports, and precise measurements of the Earth’s magnetic field. This update resolves the previous contradiction and accurately places the observed disruption within the correct historical context.