Ixtoc I Blows Out: Gulf's Worst Spill Begins
A lost circulation of drilling mud triggered a catastrophic blowout on Pemex's Sedco 135F rig, igniting a fire that collapsed the tower and ruptured the wellhead. This disaster unleashed an estimated 140 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico over three months, creating the largest offshore oil spill in history at that time.
June 3, 1979
47 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on June 3
Gladiators stormed the gates of Rome — and for 28 days, that was actually enough. Nepotianus, nephew of Constantine the Great, had no army, no treasury, no real…
Philippicus never saw it coming — literally. The Opsikion soldiers who seized him in Thrace didn't just remove him from power; they gouged out his eyes, the Byz…
Antioch didn't fall to swords — it fell to a traitor. A Armenian tower guard named Firouz, bitter over a cheese dispute with his commander, secretly opened the …
Crusaders breached the walls of Antioch after an exhausting eight-month siege, ending months of starvation and stalemate. This victory secured a vital foothold …
The Council of Sens condemned Peter Abelard’s theological writings as heretical after Bernard of Clairvaux successfully campaigned against his rationalist appro…
Norway and the Novgorod Republic formalized their northern frontier in Finnmark, ending decades of violent territorial skirmishes over tax collection rights. By…
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