From the Archives: Southern California goes dark

Dec. 10, 1941: Three days after the at­tack on Pearl Har­bor, Los Angeles had its first World War II black­out.

The lead story began: A gi­gant­ic black-out, cov­er­ing the area from Bakersfield south to San Diego and east­ward to Boulder City and Las Ve­gas, Nev., went in­to ef­fect shortly after 8 o’clock last night on or­ders from the Army 4th In­ter­cept­or Com­mand­er. It con­tin­ued un­til 11:03 p.m. As Los Angeles went dark am­dist con­sid­er­able con­fu­sion and un­cer­tainty, the In­ter­cept­or Com­mand­er an­nounced: “This is not a prac­tice black-out.”