Watch the lights go out on Oprah during Tuesday's Washington blackout

The day the lights went out on Oprah Winfrey
(Image credit: Larry French/Getty Images)

Can nothing go right with the Maya Angelou U.S. postage stamp? On Tuesday afternoon, as Oprah Winfrey was introducing the Angelou "Forever" stamp — yes, the one with a misquote — at a U.S. Postal Service ceremony in Washington, D.C., much of the capital was thrown into darkness, thanks to what power company Pepco said was a broken power cable at a substation in Maryland. Like the pro she is, Winfrey went on with her presentation, lights and amplification be damned:

The blackout, which lasted for hours, also hit the White House, State Department, Justice Department, Capitol, and several Smithsonian museums. Backup generators kicked on in most government agencies. The Department of Homeland Security said that there was no indication that the outage was engineered by malicious actors.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.