March 16
1978
The Amoco Cadiz Oil Spill
In March 1978, the supertanker Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the coast of Brittany, France, releasing its entire cargo of crude oil into the sea. The resulting spill was, at the time, the world’s largest, devastating 200 miles of pristine coastline, killing tens of thousands of seabirds, and transforming approaches to tanker safety and spill response worldwide. Read more
1968
The My Lai Massacre
On March 16, 1968, U.S. Army soldiers carried out the systematic killing of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians in the hamlet of My Lai during the Vietnam War. The massacre, initially covered up, was later exposed and became a defining moment for American public opinion on the war and for military codes of conduct. Read more
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