Blackout

During World War II, it was very common for the German to do air raids over Great Britian. In order to be stealth and un noticed, most of these air raids were performed at nights. Although this may have concealed the planes better, it made it harder to see what they would be bombing, so they looked for lights as an indicator of where people lived. In order to make it more difficult for the Germans and hopefully save British lives, the government made rules which limited the amount of light that could be emitted from your home or work, so that no light would be given off to the Germans. When first established, these rules were very strict. No one could let any light out at all which meant that they needed black curtains of paint to conceal the light. Storekeepers even had to build restrictions wouldn't let light out even when people came in and out of the stores. These rules were very strict and if citizens were caught disobeying the blackout, they were punished. Even streetlights were turned off which seemed reasonable at first, but that only increased the car accident rate significantly, so that around 600 people died every month from crashes. Over time however, the restrictions were altered to maximize safety from air raids but still making it safe for people on the ground such as limiting the amount of car accidents.