I have a 100 year old farm home. The lights went out in living room and dining room Thanksgiving night. The circuit breaker appears normal and the panel is OK.

What went wrong?

Most likely there is a loose connection somewhere in the circuit between the panel and the first dead outlet.

This can be a loose screw terminal on an outlet, or a loose splice in any junction box.

With the home being so old, you may have Knob & Tubing wiring hidden in the walls or ceilings, with Romex or BX cable exposed in the attic and basement.

The connections for K&T wiring are all buried in the walls/ceilings.

Each box, light, outlet, etc in the circuit will need to be opened looking for this bad connection.

A voltage tester will come in handy, without it, you will only be guessing hoping to find the obvious problem.

Some times a circuit breaker that looks Ok is off. Turning it all the way off and back on, may do it. Otherwise, good luck.

The first thing to do is check the voltage on the load side of the breaker. Make sure you don't have a faulty breaker... or one that's actually tripped as labman suggests. Remember... K.I.S.S.

Thank you all for the responses. I called in an electrician and he found the loose connection close to the main panel and before the first dead outlet.
That worked out as I have blown in insulation in the walls.

Thanks again

Thanks for letting us know the problem, and that I was right again.