Paul Revere's midnight ride

Paul Revere rowed past a British warship and rode out of Boston under a moon almost exactly like tonight's.

Two astronomers rebuilt the sky over Boston that night and found the Moon rose at about 9:53pm, unusually far south. Revere wrote in his own deposition that "the moon shone bright", enough light to ride by, but sitting low and southerly rather than behind him, which is one reason HMS Somerset never saw the boat.