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The New Carissa was a freighter that ran aground on a beach near Coos Bay, Oregon, United States, during a storm in February 1999 and subsequently broke apart. An attempt to tow the bow section of the ship out to sea failed when the tow line broke, and the bow was grounded again. Eventually, the bow was successfully towed out to sea and sunk. The stern section remains on the beach near Coos Bay. Fuel on board the ship was burned off in situ, but a significant amount was also spilled from the wreckage, causing ecological damage to the coastline. The United States Coast Guard performed an investigation and found that captain's error was the main cause of the wreck; however, no criminal liability was established and the captain and crew were not charged. There were significant legal and financial consequences for the ship's owners and insurer. There are plans in place to dismantle the stern section at its current site and remove it from the beach. (more...) Recently featured: Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria – Cleveland – Pashtun people Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Did you know...
From Wikipedia's newest articles: ...that the Roman de Fergus is the earliest piece of non-Celtic vernacular literature to have survived from Scotland? ...that the Philharmonia Hungarica made the first complete recording of Haydn's symphonies, was an orchestra founded by Hungarian exiles and funded by the West German government during the Cold War? ...that the dachas of the Russian poets Boris Pasternak, Korney Chukovsky, and Bulat Okudzhava in the village of Peredelkino near Moscow are open to the public as memorial houses? ...that an aerosan is a type of air-powered, armoured snowmobile, which was used for transport, reconnaissance, and raiding by the Red Army in the Winter War and the Second World War? ...that a Push-Pull Converter is a type of DC to DC converter that uses a transformer to step the voltage of a DC power supply? ...that the Chicana artist Yolanda Lopez became famous with the painting "Virgen de Guadalupe", which represents Lopez's personal investigation into Virgen de Guadalupe's status in Mexican society? Archive – Start a new article

In the news

Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks receives the first sentence from the Guantanamo military commission, and the first conviction in a U.S. war crimes trial since World War II.
Following a provincial general election that saw no party win more than 39% of the seats, the Liberal Party retains power in Quebec (flag pictured) as the province's first minority government in 129 years.
Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi is declared the winner of the Mauritanian presidential election.
In Northern Ireland, members of the DUP and Sinn Féin, led respectively by Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams, meet face-to-face for the first time, and agree on a timetable for implementing the St Andrews Agreement.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards detain fifteen British Royal Navy personnel assigned to HMS Cornwall, alleging they illegally entered Iranian waters.

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On this day...

March 31: Mawlid in Sunni Islam (2007); César Chávez Day in various U.S. states, Freedom Day in Malta.

1854 - Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy signed the Treaty of Kanagawa, forcing the opening of Japanese ports to American trade.
1889 - The Eiffel Tower (pictured) was inaugurated in Paris.
1903 - New Zealand inventor Richard Pearse reportedly flew in one of the first flying machines.
1917 - The Danish West Indies became the U.S. Virgin Islands after the United States paid Denmark US$25 million for the Caribbean islands.
1930 - Hollywood movie studios instituted the Production Code to avoid government censorship.

Recent days: March 30 – March 29 – March 28

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Today's featured picture

The boobies are a group of seabirds closely related to the gannets. They are large birds with long pointed wings and long bills.

Boobies hunt fish by diving from a height into the sea and pursuing their prey underwater. They have facial air sacs under their skin which cushion the impact with the water. Boobies normally lay one or more chalky blue eggs on the ground or sometimes in a tree nest. Their name is based on the Spanish slang term bubi, meaning "dunce".

Photo credit: United States Coast Guard
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