March 24th...This Day in History (Now with links to other events)

Exxon Valdez runs aground 1989

 

One of the worst oil spills in U.S. territory begins when the supertanker Exxon Valdez, owned and operated by the Exxon Corporation, runs aground on a reef in Prince William Sound in southern Alaska. An estimated 11 million gallons of oil eventually spilled into the water. Attempts to contain the massive spill were unsuccessful, and wind and currents spread the oil more than 100 miles from its source, eventually polluting more than 700 miles of coastline. Hundreds of thousands of birds and animals were adversely affected by the environmental disaster.

It was later revealed that Joseph Hazelwood, the captain of the Valdez, was drinking at the time of the accident and allowed an uncertified officer to steer the massive vessel. In March 1990, Hazelwood was convicted of misdemeanor negligence, fined $50,000, and ordered to perform 1,000 hours of community service. In July 1992, an Alaska court overturned Hazelwood’s conviction, citing a federal statute that grants freedom from prosecution to those who report an oil spill.

Exxon itself was condemned by the National Transportation Safety Board and in early 1991 agreed under pressure from environmental groups to pay a penalty of $100 million and provide $1 billion over a 10-year period for the cost of the cleanup. However, later in the year, both Alaska and Exxon rejected the agreement, and in October 1991 the oil giant settled the matter by paying $25 million, less than 4 percent of the cleanup aid promised by Exxon earlier that year.

 (More Events on This Day in History)

• American Revolution

• 1765 Parliament passes the Quartering Act

• Automotive

• 2007 Ferrari’s around-the-world relay stops in L.A.

• Civil War

• 1862 Wendall Phillips booed in Cincinnati

• Cold War

• 1977 United States and Cuba engage in direct negotiations

• Crime

• 1998 A school shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas, kills five

• Disaster

• 1989 Exxon Valdez runs aground in Alaska
• 2015 Germanwings pilot intentionally crashes plane, killing 150 people

• General Interest

• 1603 Queen Elizabeth I dies
• 1996 Shannon Lucid enters Mir
• 1999 NATO bombs Yugoslavia

• Hollywood

• 2002 Halle Berry, Denzel Washington triumph at Oscars

• Literary

• 1955 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens

• Music

• 1958 Elvis Presley is inducted into the U.S. Army

• Old West

• 1834 John Wesley Powell born

• Presidential

• 1949 Truman signs off on aid to Palestine

• Sports

• 1976 Peyton Manning born

• Vietnam War

• 1965 First teach-in conducted
• 1975 North Vietnamese launch “Ho Chi Minh Campaign”

• World War I

• 1918 German forces cross the Somme River

• World War II

• 1944 Wingate dies in Burma