Here’s a brief look back in time for this day, April 20.
In 1914, soldiers from the Colorado National Guard and private security officers gunned down and killed 21 people living in a tent colony as retaliation for striking against poor labor conditions in coal mines. The colony housed about 1,200 miners and their families, all of which was under the watchful eye of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company’s owner: John D. Rockefeller Jr. This mass killing, dubbed the Ludlow Massacre, was part of a larger conflict known as the Colorado Coalfield War.
In 2010, a mobile offshore oil rig called the Deepwater Horizon is heavily damaged after an explosion occurs while drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Built in South Korea and leased by BP, it contained safety measures that were in place to prevent such an event from happening. However, all of them had failed as oil continued to spew out into the ocean. As the fire continued to burn, the Deepwater Horizon sank on April 22, causing even more issues as engineers find a way to plug the hole it made. It wasn’t until a few months later in July when the oil stopped. The damage to the area’s ecology and wildlife was devastating, with millions of birds, sea turtles, and fish being harmed by the 205.8 million gallons of oil spilled.