On this day: March 24

Randy Johnson's 2001 Pitch Strikes and Kills a Bird Midflight

On March 24, 2001, during a spring training game in Tucson, Arizona, Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson threw a fastball that struck and killed a dove in midair after it flew across home plate.

The First Public Scandal Over Human Experimentation: Nuremberg Revelations, March 24, 1947

On March 24, 1947, the Nuremberg Medical Trial's verdicts and published details exposed systematic human experimentation by Nazi doctors during World War II, prompting worldwide outrage and the first major postwar reckoning over medical ethics.

First U.S. Patent for Barbed Wire Issued, 1874

On March 24, 1874, the United States Patent Office granted the first patent for barbed wire, marking a turning point in fencing technology that would rapidly transform agriculture, land use, and settlement patterns across the American West.

Exxon Valdez runs aground, unleashing massive oil spill on Alaskan coast

On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez grounded on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, rupturing its hull and releasing roughly 11 million gallons of crude oil that contaminated hundreds of miles of coastline and triggered one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.

Exxon Valdez runs aground, triggering one of Alaska’s worst oil spills

On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, releasing hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil and causing extensive ecological, economic, and social damage across the region.