Exxon Valdez spill is world's worst oil pollution accident - March 24, 1989
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Eleven million gallons of crude oil devastated Alaska's coastline and wildlife when the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground and began to leak its cargo.
One of the greatest environmental disasters of modern times occurred on this day in 1989, when the US supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, Prince William Sound in Alaska, spilling at least 11 million gallons of oil into the ocean.
As the video above recalls, the spill affected 1,300 miles of shoreline and would cover over 11,000 square miles of ocean, killing hundreds of thousands of birds and sea mammals and hugely disrupting the economy of the area.
Immediate recovery and clean-up efforts were hampered by the location of the spill – accessible only by boat, plane or helicopter – and high winds, which prevented attempts to suck the slick from the top of the waters.
The crash was later blamed on crew fatigue and overwork and the failure of the third mate, who was piloting the tanker, to use its Collision Avoidance System radar; it has subsequently been suggested that the equipment was faulty.
The vessel had left normal shipping lanes to avoid icebergs, but had failed to return to them before running aground on the reef. Its captain, Joe Hazelwood, was found to have been drinking and was asleep in his cabin at the time of the collision.
Although attempts to burn the oil off were partially successful, oil company Exxon was widely criticised for its slow response to the disaster. In 1994 a federal court ordered the company to pay $5 billion in punitive damages.
This was reduced to $2.5 billion on appeal, and even further by the US Supreme Court in 2008. Exxon has paid out over $1 billion in damages to date. By 2010, more than $2 billion had been spent on the clean-up operation.
Thứ Bảy, 24 tháng 3, 2018
Exxon Valdez spill is world's worst oil pollution accident - March 24, 1989 - on day in history
Thứ Sáu, 23 tháng 3, 2018
OK enters national vernacular
On this day in 1839, the initials “O.K.” are first published in The Boston Morning Post. Meant as an abbreviation for “oll korrect,” a popular slang misspelling of “all correct” at the time, OK steadily made its way into the everyday speech of Americans.
During the late 1830s, it was a favorite practice among younger, educated circles to misspell words intentionally, then abbreviate them and use them as slang when talking to one another. Just as teenagers today have their own slang based on distortions of common words, such as “kewl” for “cool” or “DZ” for “these,” the “in crowd” of the 1830s had a whole host of slang terms they abbreviated. Popular abbreviations included “KY” for “No use” (“know yuse”), “KG” for “No go” (“Know go”), and “OW” for all right (“oll wright”).
Of all the abbreviations used during that time, OK was propelled into the limelight when it was printed in the Boston Morning Post as part of a joke. Its popularity exploded when it was picked up by contemporary politicians. When the incumbent president Martin Van Buren was up for reelection, his Democratic supporters organized a band of thugs to influence voters. This group was formally called the “O.K. Club,” which referred both to Van Buren’s nickname “Old Kinderhook” (based on his hometown of Kinderhook, New York), and to the term recently made popular in the papers. At the same time, the opposing Whig Party made use of “OK” to denigrate Van Buren’s political mentor Andrew Jackson. According to the Whigs, Jackson invented the abbreviation “OK” to cover up his own misspelling of “all correct.”
The man responsible for unraveling the mystery behind “OK” was an American linguist named Allen Walker Read. An English professor at Columbia University, Read dispelled a host of erroneous theories on the origins of “OK,” ranging from the name of a popular Army biscuit (Orrin Kendall) to the name of a Haitian port famed for its rum (Aux Cayes) to the signature of a Choctaw chief named Old Keokuk. Whatever its origins, “OK” has become one of the most ubiquitous terms in the world, and certainly one of America’s greatest lingual exports.
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Chủ Nhật, 18 tháng 3, 2018
Wells and Fargo start shipping and banking company March 18,1852
Wells and Fargo start shipping and banking company March 18,1852
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On this day in 1852, in New York City, Henry Wells and William G. Fargo join with several other investors to launch their namesake business.
The discovery of gold in California in 1849 prompted a huge spike in the demand for cross-country shipping. Wells and Fargo decided to take advantage of these great opportunities. In July 1852, their company shipped its first loads of freight from the East Coast to mining camps scattered around northern California. The company contracted with independent stagecoach companies to provide the fastest possible transportation and delivery of gold dust, important documents and other valuable freight. It also served as a bank–buying gold dust, selling paper bank drafts and providing loans to help fuel California’s growing economy.
In 1857, Wells, Fargo and Co. formed the Overland Mail Company, known as the “Butterfield Line,” which provided regular mail and passenger service along an ever-growing number of routes. In the boom-and-bust economy of the 1850s, the company earned a reputation as a trustworthy and reliable business, and its logo–the classic stagecoach–became famous. For a premium price, Wells, Fargo and Co. would send an employee on horseback to deliver or pick up a message or package.
Wells, Fargo and Co. merged with several other “Pony Express” and stagecoach lines in 1866 to become the unrivaled leader in transportation in the West. When the transcontinental railroad was completed three years later, the company began using railroad to transport its freight. By 1910, its shipping network connected 6,000 locations, from the urban centers of the East and the farming towns of the Midwest to the ranching and mining centers of Texas and California and the lumber mills of the Pacific Northwest.
After splitting from the freight business in 1905, the banking branch of the company merged with the Nevada National Bank and established new headquarters in San Francisco. During World War I, the U.S. government nationalized the company’s shipping routes and combined them with the railroads into the American Railway Express, effectively putting an end to Wells, Fargo and Co. as a transportation and delivery business. The following April, the banking headquarters was destroyed in a major earthquake, but the vaults remained intact and the bank’s business continued to grow. After two later mergers, the Wells Fargo Bank American Trust Company–shortened to the Wells Fargo Bank in 1962–became, and has remained, one of the biggest banking institutions in the United States.
Thứ Bảy, 17 tháng 3, 2018
Commons Leader Robin Cook resigns as Britain prepares for war with Iraq March 17, 2003
Commons Leader Robin Cook resigns as Britain prepares for war with Iraq March 17, 2003
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The former Foreign Secretary made what was described as "one of the most effective resignation speeches in modern British politics" when he quit Tony Blair's government over war in the Gulf.
Shockwaves were sent through Westminster on this day in 2003 when Robin Cook, Leader of the House of Commons and one of the highest-profile members of the Labour Party, resigned from Tony Blair’s government over the escalation towards war in Iraq.
Explaining his decision, the former Foreign Secretary said that he was unable to remain part of a cabinet that was looking to commit Britain to war without United Nations approval – in violation of international law - or the support of the wider voting public.
Britain, Spain and the US had failed to secure a vote on a second resolution from the UN Security Council authorising a military invasion of Iraq. Despite this, the government had pledged to join President Bush’s ‘coalition of the willing’ to rid the country of weapons of mass destruction.
Mr Blair had recently survived a rebellion by 122 Labour backbenchers, all of whom voted for a motion saying the case for war on Iraq was "not proven", while a Stop The War march through London in February had attracted between 750,000 and two million demonstrators.
Mr Cook was the first major figure to resign from the cabinet over the issue. In his letter to the Prime Minister, he wrote: "For some weeks I have been frank about my concern over embarking on military action in the absence of multilateral support.
"The reality is that Britain is being asked to embark on a war without agreement in any of the international bodies of which we are a leading partner - not Nato, not the European Union and, now, not the Security Council".
That evening, he would receive an unprecedented standing ovation from MPs on all sides of the House for what political correspondent Andrew Marr described as "without doubt one of the most effective, brilliant resignation speeches in modern British politics".
But it was not enough to prevent the House of Commons passing the government motion to go to war in Iraq by 412 votes to 149. The invasion would begin on March 20.
Prime Minister Harold Wilson announces resignation March 16,1976
Prime Minister Harold Wilson announces resignation March 16,1976
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On this day in 1976, Harold Wilson stunned the political world by announcing his resignation after almost eight years in office.
Harold Wilson shocked the political world on this day in 1976 by announcing he was to resign, just over two years into his second stint as British Prime Minister.
Wilson, who had led the Labour Party for 13 years, made the announcement to his Cabinet five days after his 60th birthday, though he was said to have informed the Queen of his intentions the previous year. He would leave office on April 5.
His Cabinet issued a statement expressing their surprise and regret at his decision, but they also paid tribute to his leadership which they said he had carried out with "outstanding wisdom and dedication".
Wilson stressed that it had always been his intention to step down at this age and that there was no hidden agenda behind his decision, though it was later suggested that early signs of issues with his health may have been a factor.
He was first elected to the House of Commons in his party’s landslide victory of 1945, and had represented the Merseyside seat of Huyton since 1950. He won the Labour leadership in 1963 after the death of Hugh Gaitskell.
In an interview just after his announcement, Wilson told the BBC: “I wish I could have been Prime Minister in happier times, and easier times.” But he added that he was proud of reuniting a country that had been divided over industrial relations and Europe.
Six Labour Cabinet ministers put themselves forward to replace him as party leader and Prime Minister. On April 5, Foreign Secretary James Callaghan won a third ballot and would lead the country until his 1979 election defeat to Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives.
Earthquakes kill more than 1,200 in Taiwan March 17,1776
Only a month and a day later, the huge 8.3 San Francisco earthquake rocked the North American coast across the Pacific Ocean from Taiwan. But it was the earthquakes just across the Taiwan Strait in mainland China in subsequent years that would prove to be among the most deadly in history. In 1927, approximately 200,000 people were killed in China by an earthquake that people in the West were barely aware of, as it occurred in the midst of Charles Lindbergh’s solo Atlantic crossing. The next deadly earthquake in Taiwan came in 1935 when 3,200 people died.
Battle of New Bern, North Carolina March 14, 1862
Battle of New Bern, North Carolina March 14, 1862
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On this day in 1862, at the Battle of New Bern, Union General Ambrose Burnside captures North Carolina’s second largest city and closes another port through which the Confederates could slip supplies. The capture of New Bern continued Burnside’s success along the Carolina coast. Five weeks earlier, he led an amphibious force against Roanoke Island between Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds.
The Yankees captured the island on February 8; now Burnside moved against New Bern on the mainland. On March 13, he landed 12,000 troops along the Neuse River, 15 miles south of New Bern. Accompanied by 13 gunboats, Burnside’s army marched up river to face 4,000 Confederate troops commanded by General Lawrence O. Branch. The city was protected by extensive defenses, but Branch did not have enough soldiers to properly staff them. He concentrated his men along the inner works a few miles downriver from New Bern. Early on the morning of March 14, Burnside’s men attacked in a heavy fog, and two of the three Yankee brigades crashed into the fortifications. General Jesse Reno’s brigade struck the weakest part of the line, where an inexperienced Rebel militia unit tried to hold off the Federals.
Burnside’s third brigade joined Reno and the Confederate line collapsed. That afternoon, Union gunboats steamed into New Bern. Union casualties for the battle were around 90 killed and 380 wounded, while the Confederates suffered approximately 60 killed, 100 wounded, and 400 captured. The conflict produced a Confederate hero, Colonel Zebulon Vance, who rescued his regiment by using small boats to bypass a bridge set afire by his comrades. Vance was elected governor of the state later that year.
Did you know Morse code?
180 years ago this week, on 6th January 1838, Samuel Morse demonstrated his telegraph system for the first time, in New Jersey.
You might not know it was two Brits - Charles Wheatstone and William Cooke who pioneered the first practical electric telegraph and on 25th July 1837 exchanged messages for the first time between Camden Town and Euston.
Two years later on June 20th, Morse received US Patent 1647 for an electronic telegraph for: Improvement in the mode of communicating information by signals in the application of electro-magnetism. Electrical current pushed a magnet through moving paper tape, making an indentation.
Morse worked with another inventor, Alfred Vail, to create the original Morse Code, which could be used to translate the indentations into letters. The indent and the space could be combined to form letters, creating a code language for sending messages electronically.