1989: Exxon Valdez Alaskan oil spill.
On this day in 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground, spilling some 11 million gallons (41 million litres) of oil into Prince William Sound in Alaska and creating the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
| 2002: | | | Film stars Denzel Washington and Halle Berry became the second and third African Americans to win Academy Awards for performances in leading roles. |
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| 1945: | | | With the debut of the Billboard magazine pop album chart, American pianist and singer Nat King Cole's King Cole Trio became the first record album to appear at No. 1. |
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| 1905: | | | Pioneering French science-fiction author Jules Verne died in Amiens, France. |
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| 1882: | | | Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had isolated and grown the tubercle bacillus, which he believed to be the cause of all forms of tuberculosis. |
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| 1603: | | King James VI of Scotland ascended the English throne as James I following the death of Elizabeth I. |
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