July 23

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Oil Spill at New Orleans
July 23, 2008

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A Coast Guard crewman observes the sunken barge surrounded by tugs in the Mississippi River. (U.S. Coast Guard Photo)

The 2008 New Orleans oil spill was an oil spill that occurred on July 23,2008 at New Orleans, Louisiana, in which No. 6 fuel oil was spilled into the Mississippi River after a tanker collided with Barge DM932 being pulled by a tugboat upriver near the Crescent City Connection. Although early estimates stated approximately 400,000 gallons (1,514,164 liters) of the fuel oil was spilled into the river, subsequent estimates by the Office of Response and Restoration of the National Ocean Service placed the spill at approximately 280,000 gallons

At about 1:30 a.m. local time on July 23, 2008, the Tintomara, a 600 Liberian-flagged tanker collided with the 61 ft barge carrying No. 6 fuel oil being towed by the tug Mel Oliver operated by DRD Towing of Harvey. The barge was picked up from the John W. Stone Oil Distributor in Gretna.

By July 24, the Coast Guard closed the river to all ships from mile marker 97 in New Orleans to the Southwest Pass estuary at the Gulf of Mexico. By midday, the slick had reached as far as Venice, with only 140 barrels (22 m3) of oil contained and removed from the river. Floating, containment booms were utilized in the cleanup with many being placed in strategic locations in order to minimize the impacts of the Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

With clean-up well underway, the barge released an estimated 2,500 gallons of oil into the river on July 30, resulting in its closure to river traffic for a period of six hours. The pumping of the remaining fuel oil would commence shortly thereafter, with the actual removal of the damaged barge underway during the week of August 4, 2008

The closure resulted a halting of river traffic with many ships being held in New Orleans. The closure resulted in the Port of New Orleans losing an estimated $100,000 in revenue for each day it remained closed. Also, Carnival Cruise Lines diverted its lead Fantasy class ship Carnival Fantasy to Mobile, Alabama through the September 1, 2008 cruise before going to its scheduled four week drydock. It returned to New Orleans on October 4, 2008. (Wiki)

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A sad day in St. Aloysius school history -- the July 23, 1969 States-Item newspaper advertisement announcing the July 24 auction of the building contents and components including "magnificent cypress columns", "oversize panel doors", a circular staircase, 450 feet of iron fencing two-feet tall, three pairs of large iron gates, two iron safes, oak church pews, wood mantels, a fire hose, three school buses, and even a kitchen sink. By February of 1971 the building was in the final stages of demolition.

The U.S. Postal Service bought the property from the brothers for $63,000 in November 1974 -- a purchase made for "anticipated future needs". In 1980, Washington, D.C. doctor Stanley A. Boucree bought the former school land along with adjoining property for $8,000,000 intending to build a 157 apartment complex. In 1987 Walgreens expressed interest in the property. Another scheme called for a 32-story condominium building to be developed by Louisiana Apartment Corporation. None of these endeavors came to fruition. Aloysius Apartments, a 49 unit four-story mixed-income housing complex developed by HRI Properties now occupies 1137 Esplanade Avenue.

More about St. Aloysius school history.

Photo -- NORD Travelling Theater at Coliseum Playground, July 23, 1947. The performance may have been a one-act play called The Telegram (author unknown), which NORD produced that summer. The original NORD Traveling Theater, which debuted in 1947, was built on the chassis of an old garbage wagon (the kind pulled by mules!) and featured a complete 12’ x 16’ stage, curtain, interior sets, and a public address system. The theater, with casts made up of playground children, visited playgrounds and NORD centers around the city. In 1949, the city turned over a converted bus for use as the theater. (NOPL)

Photo -- Pontchartrain Beach amusement park, July 23, 1940.

Several photos -- Art class conducted by WPA instructors for children at the Gentilly Terrace School. Click here for the names of the children and teacher in the photographs, July 23, 1940. (NOPL)

Several photos - Achievement Day at Statewide Bookbinding Project, located at Carondelet Streetand Jackson Avenue, July 23, 1938.

Maurice Edwin "Moon" Landrieu, born on July 23, 1930, served as a Democratic Mayor (56th Mayor) of New Orleans from May 2, 1970 – May 1, 1978, a judge. a representative on the New Orleans' Twelfth Ward in the Louisiana House of Representatives (1960 to 1966) and on the New Orleans City Council as a member at-large (1966 to 1970). On September 24, 1979 he was appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under U.S. President Jimmy Carter. He served in this position until January 20, 1981.

BREAUX, Joseph Arsène, attorney, educator, businessman, jurist. Born, Bayou Goula, Iberville Parish, La., February 18, 1838; son of Margaret Walsh and John B. Breaux. Education: attended local private schools; Georgetown College, Kentucky, B. A.; University of Louisiana, law degree, 1859. Admitted to the bar and practiced law in Iberville Parish, 1859; published newspaper, The Weeky Magnolia, Plaquemine, 1861. Married, 1861, Eugenia Mille, daughter of Thomas Mille, planter of Iberville Parish. No children. Enlisted in the Confederate Army, September 24, 1862; captain, Thirtieth Louisiana Infantry, 1862; private and orderly sergeant, Second Louisiana Cavalry, 1862-1864; lieutenant and adjutant, Eighth Louisiana Cavalry, 1864-1865. Practiced law in Lafayette, 1865; superintended the distribution of food during yellow fever epidemic, 1867; removed to Abbeville, in 1868 removed to New Iberia; formed law partnership with William F. Schwing, 1875. Associated with the P. L. Renoudet Lumber Company of New Iberia in 1879; a founder and first president, New Iberia National Bank; member, and later superintendent, of the Iberia Parish School Board, 1880-1888. Elected state superintendent of public education, 1888; compiled school laws of state and court decisions relating to those laws; compilation published in 1889. Appointed associate justice of state supreme court, April 24, 1890, and chief justice, 1904; served as chief justice until retirement, 1914. Donated a large sum of money to Charity Hospital, New Orleans; administration building bears his name. Member of the board of Tulane University and Louisiana State Museum; member, Loyola Law School faculty, Louisiana Historical Society and United Confederate Veterans Camp No. 9. Catholic. Died, New Orleans, July 23, 1926; interred Metairie Cemetery. A.W.B. & J.B.C. Sources: Report of the Louisiana Bar Association for 1927 and 1928, XXVIII (September, 1928); Who's Who in America, IX, (1916-1917); New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, July 24, 1926; Walter Prichard, ed., "A Tourist's Description of Louisiana in 1860," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XXI (1938); Hubert Humphreys, "In a Sense Experimental: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Louisiana," Louisiana History, VI (1965). From http://lahistory.org/site19.php

CHARLES, Robert, black nationalist. Born, 1865 or 1866, near Pine Bluff on Bayou Pierre, Copiah County, Miss.; son of Jasper and Miriah Charles. Education: census of 1880 lists him as age 14 and literate. Career: worked on land his family farmed as sharecroppers; laborer for a waterworks company in Vicksburg, 1887; section hand for railroad company, 1888-1892; involved in a gunfight with railroad flagmen on May 23, 1892; went back to Copiah County and assumed the name, Curtis Robertson; appeared in court in 1894 for selling whiskey in a dry county; was released and left for New Orleans. Worked as a manual laborer at various jobs; joined the International Migration Society in May 1896; its purpose was to transport American Negroes back to Africa; made one payment on a voyage to Liberia; resumed his given name; distributed migration literature in New Orleans and Mississippi, 1896-1900. While waiting for a girlfriend on night of July 23, 1900, was ordered by two policemen to leave the racially mixed neighborhood; both he and an officer were wounded in an exchange of gunfire; excaped and hid out on Saratoga Street; during the ensuing four-day manhunt race riots erupted in the city; each of New Orleans' four major newspapers contributed to some extent to the violence; at least fifty people, mostly black, were severely beaten, fifteen were shot, and eleven were killed; the mob was composed mostly of laboring-class young white men; from his hiding place he killed seven people (four of whom were policemen), wounded eight (three policemen), and slightly wounded twelve civilians. Was shot and killed by a medical student who had volunteered to enter the house. Died, of multiple gunshot wounds, July 27, 1900; that night, Lafon School, a Negro school, was burned by a mob. At the morgue his body was viewed by hundreds of curious New Orleanians. Interred Holt's Cemetery, the local potters field. From http://lahistory.org/site20.php

On July 23, 1861, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston recommended to President Jefferson Davis that P.G.T. Beauregard be promoted to full general. Davis approved.

Charlotte Saunders Cushman, actress. Born, Boston, Mass., July 23, 1816; daughter of Elkanah Cushman and Mary Eliza Babbitt. Studied opera; debut, Boston, Tremont Theatre, April 8, 1835, as Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro. Went with Clara Fisher Company to New Orleans; member of the company at the St. Charles Theatre during the 1835-1836 season; appeared in operas to bad reviews. James H. Caldwell (q.v.), manager of the St. Charles Theatre, encouraged her to develop her dramatic talents and to abandon singing which she was willing to do. Dramatic debut, New Orleans, St. Charles Theatre, April 23, 1836, as Lady Macbeth; marked the beginning of her successful career as a dramatic actress. Noted here and abroad in such roles as Meg Merriliers in Guy Mannering, Nancy Sykes in Oliver Twist, and Queen Katharine in Henry VIII. Essayed male roles: Romeo, Wolsey, Hamlet. Made frequent "farewell" tours as health declined. Described as the most powerful American actress of the nineteenth century. Never married. Died, Boston, February 17, 1876; interred Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Mass. From http://lahistory.org/site20.php

Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Viscount of Galveston and Count of Gálvez (Macharaviaya, Málaga, Spain July 23, 1746 – November 30, 1786) was a Spanish military leader and colonial administrator who served as colonial governor of Louisiana and Cuba, and later as Viceroy of New Spain. (Wiki)