On August 27, 1998 a burst of gamma rays from the Magnetar SGR 1900+14 struck the Earth's ionosphere while the west coast was in night time and the east coast was in day light. The pulse lasted about 5 minutes. Coincidently, on the evening of August 26-27 from places in Ohio and the east coast or North America, observers saw an aurora. This aurora was actually produced by a solar 'coronal mass ejection' event which had started around August 23 and had arrived at the earth at 3:00 AM Eastern Standard Time on August 26th. The gamma ray burst was not seen on the east coast, but the unrelated solar storm aurora was observed.
This is a perfect example in science of how 'simultaneous' events are not always linked by cause and effect. This is also why so many people believe in superstition because, once upon a time, someone carried a lucky charm when something good happened to them.