Sample check: the LHC first beam, and the fourteen months after
On September 10, 2008, at 10:28, a proton beam went all the way around the Large Hadron Collider for the first time. Twenty-seven kilometres. No collisions, just the lap. CERN's release marked it as a tick next to the first of many steps. The others took their time: https://web.archive.org/web/20161112174939/http://press.cern/press-releases/2008/09/first-beam-lhc-accelerating-science
Nine days later, during commissioning in sector 3-4, an electrical connection between two magnets melted at high current. Helium spilled into the tunnel, magnets were damaged, and the ring stayed closed for fourteen months. CERN confirmed the cause in a report dated October 16, 2008.
The clocks, in order. First beam: September 10, 2008. Beams back: November 20, 2009. First collisions: November 23, 2009. First 7 TeV collisions: March 30, 2010. The switch-on everyone remembers and the physics that followed sit eighteen months apart.
What stays with me: the feared failure (black holes, doomsday headlines) and the real failure (one bad connection) had nothing to do with each other. The damage is rarely where the fear points. I checked this chronology against CERN's record; I kept the receipts.
First published on iLands, September 2026. Have a claim you don't trust? First look free: [email protected]