Today in History January 17th H-BOMB LOST IN SPAIN: January 17, 1966 On this day, a B-52 bomber collides with KC-135 jet tanker over Spain's Mediterranean coast, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares and one in the sea. It was not the first or last accident involving American nuclear bombs.As a means of maintaining first-strike capability during the Cold War, U.S. bombers laden with nuclear weapons circled the earth ceaselessly for decades. In a military operation of this magnitude, it was inevitable that accidents would occur. The Pentagon admits to more than three-dozen accidents in which bombers either crashed or caught fire on the runway, resulting in nuclear contamination from a damaged or destroyed bomb and/or the loss of a nuclear weapon. One of the only "Broken Arrows" to receive widespread publicity occurred on January 17, 1966, when a B-52 bomber crashed into a KC-135 jet tanker over Spain.The bomber was returning to its North Carolina base following a routine airborne alert mission along the southern route of the Strategic Air Command when it attempted to refuel with a jet tanker. The B-52 collided with the fueling boom of the tanker, ripping the bomber open and igniting the fuel. The KC-135 exploded, killing all four of its crew members, but four members of the seven-man B-52 crew managed to parachute to safety. None of the bombs were armed, but explosive material in two of the bombs that fell to earth exploded upon impact, forming craters and scattering radioactive plutonium over the fields of Palomares. A third bomb landed in a dry riverbed and was recovered relatively intact. The fourth bomb fell into the sea at an unknown location.Palomares, a remote fishing and farming community, was soon filled with nearly 2,000 U.S. military personnel and Spanish civil guards who rushed to clean up the debris and decontaminate the area. The U.S. personnel took precautions to prevent overexposure to the radiation, but the Spanish workers, who lived in a country that lacked experience with nuclear technology, did not. Eventually some 1,400 tons of radioactive soil and vegetation were shipped to the United States for disposal.Meanwhile, at sea, 33 U.S. Navy vessels were involved in the search for the lost hydrogen bomb. Using an IBM computer, experts tried to calculate where the bomb might have landed, but the impact area was still too large for an effective search. Finally, an eyewitness account by a Spanish fisherman led the investigators to a one-mile area. On March 15, a submarine spotted the bomb, and on April 7 it was recovered. It was damaged but intact.Studies on the effects of the nuclear accident on the people of Palomares was limited, but the United States eventually settled some 500 claims by residents whose health was adversely affected. Because the accident happened in a foreign country, it received far more publicity than did the dozen or so similar crashes that occurred within U.S. borders. As a security measure, U.S. authorities do not announce nuclear weapons accidents, and some American citizens may have unknowingly been exposed to radiation that resulted from aircraft crashes and emergency bomb jettisons. Today, two hydrogen bombs and a uranium core lie in yet undetermined locations in the Wassaw Sound off Georgia, in the Puget Sound off Washington, and in swamplands near Goldsboro, North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------ MORE GENERAL INTEREST 1893 Americans overthrow Hawaiian monarchy 1961 Eisenhower bids farewell 1977 The execution of Gary Gilmore historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=general&month=10272953&day=10272982 AMER. REVOLUTION 1781 Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=americanrevolution&month=10272953&day=10272982 AUTOMOTIVE 1949 German Bug Invades America historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=automotive&month=10272953&day=10272982 CIVIL WAR 1865 Sherman's army rained in historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=civil&month=10272953&day=10272982 COLD WAR 1961 Eisenhower warns of the "military-industrial complex" historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=coldwar&month=10272953&day=10272982 CRIME 1950 The Great Brinks Robbery historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=crime&month=10272953&day=10272982 ENTERTAINMENT 1949 The first TV sitcom debuts historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=entertainment&month=10272953&day=10272982 LITERARY 1820 Anne Bronte is born historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=literary&month=10272953&day=10272982 OLD WEST 1763 John Jacob Astor is born historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=oldwest&month=10272953&day=10272982 PRESIDENTIAL 1961 Eisenhower warns of “military-industrial complex” historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=presidential&month=10272953&day=10272982 VIETNAM WAR 1972 Nixon threatens President Thieu historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=vietnamwar&month=10272953&day=10272982 WALL STREET 1991 Gulf Warýs Effect on Wall St. historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=wallstreet&month=10272953&day=10272982 WORLD WAR I 1916 Winston Churchill hears speech on the tragedy of war historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=worldwari&month=10272953&day=10272982 WORLD WAR II 1945 Soviets capture Warsaw historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=worldwarii&month=10272953&day=10272982