Today in History

What went down and why you should care.

mar 24 Learn More Exxon Valdez Crash


The Exxon Valdez oil tanker crashed into the Bligh Reef on this day in 1989, dumping as many as 38 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska, and covering 11,000 square miles of ocean in black goop. Several causes contributed to the disaster, both human and mechanical, but our favorite comes from fiction, specifically from the world of Forrest Gump. Author Winston Groom wrote a sequel to Forrest Gump called Gump & Co., in which Forrest was once again involved, accidentally, in several historical events, including crashing the Exxon Valdez. Bub-baaa!

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