On March 24, 2002, Halle Berry became the first African American
woman to win the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal in Monster’s
Ball.
As an emotional Berry clutched her Oscar, she tearfully called the moment “so much bigger than me” and declared that “the door
had been opened” for actresses of color.
Halle Maria Berry will turn 60 on August 14th.
March 24, 1989: One of the worst oil spills in U.S. history began
when the supertanker Exxon Valdez, owned and operated by the
Exxon Corporation, ran aground on a reef in Prince William Sound
in southern Alaska.
An estimated 11 million gallons of oil eventually spilled into the
water. Attempts to contain the massive spill were unsuccessful,
and wind and currents spread the oil more than 100 miles from
its source, eventually polluting more than 700 miles of coastline. Hundreds of thousands of birds and animals were adversely
affected by the environmental disaster.
