Back in the Day: H-bombs fall on Spain after mid-air crash

January 17, 1966 An American B52 bomber carrying four Hydrogen bombs collides with a refuelling tanker plane in the skies above southern Spain. The fuel tanker exploded, killing all four crew members, while three of the seven B52 crew also lost their lives. The bombs, none of which were primed, fell close to the Mediterranean fishing village of Palomares. Of the three that hit land, two contained material that exploded upon impact, scattering radioactive plutonium over local fields. The third bomb to make landfall was recovered intact. The fourth bomb’s parachute opened as it fell, carrying the device out to sea. It was recovered intact after an intensive search in April that year (see picture). The bomber had been carrying its payload as part of the US policy of keeping thermonuclear devices airborne at all times during the Cold War, its so-called ‘first-strike’ capability. Following the Palomares incident however, the US promised not to fly planes carrying nuclear weapons over Spanish airspace. Although no-one was killed on the ground, higher-than-normal levels of radiation continue to be recorded in the impact zone.

Also on January 17: Captain Robert Scott reaches the South Pole 34 days after Roald Amundsen (1912); first comic-strip appearance of Popeye (1929); US President Dwight Eisenhower warns of the dangers of the ‘military-industrial complex’ (1961); start of Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf War (1991).

Born on January 17: Benjamin Franklin (1706), Anne Brontë (1820), David Lloyd George (1863), Al Capone (1899), Cus D’Amato (1908), Vidal Sassoon (1928), Dalida (1933), Muhammad Ali (1942), Jim Carrey (1962), Michelle Obama (1964), Dwyane Wade (1982).

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