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Events on March 16 in history

Amoco Cadiz
1978Mar, 16

Supertanker Amoco Cadiz splits in two after running aground on the Portsall Rocks, three miles off the coast of Brittany, resulting in the largest oil spill in history at that time.

Amoco Cadiz was a VLCC (very large crude carrier) owned by Amoco Transport Corp and transporting crude oil for Shell Oil. Operating under the Liberian flag of convenience, she ran aground on 16 March 1978 on Portsall Rocks, 2 km (1.2 mi) from the coast of Brittany, France. Ultimately she split in three and sank, resulting in the largest oil spill of its kind in history to that date.

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Events on 1978

  • 11Feb

    Aristotle

    Censorship: China lifts a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.
  • 27Apr

    Watergate scandal

    Former United States President Nixon aide John D. Ehrlichman is released from an Arizona prison after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
  • 25Jul

    In vitro fertilisation

    Birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first human to have been born after conception by in vitro fertilisation, or IVF.
  • 22Oct

    Pope John Paul II

    Papal inauguration of Pope John Paul II.
  • 18Nov

    Jim Jones

    In Jonestown, Guyana, Jim Jones led his Peoples Temple to a mass murder-suicide that claimed 918 lives in all, 909 of them in Jonestown itself, including over 270 children. Congressman Leo Ryan is murdered by members of the Peoples Temple hours earlier.