When did the US drop a nuclear bomb in Spain?

On January 17, 1966, at the height of the Cold War, a United States bomber and a tanker collided above the small farming village of Palomares, Spain, during a routine midair refueling. The explosion killed seven airmen and scattered the bomber’s payload—four unarmed thermonuclear bombs—across miles of coastline.

One bomb fell into the Mediterranean, where the US Navy found it two and a half months later. The other three crashed onto land; two cracked open and dispersed plutonium with the wind. The contaminated land was partially cleaned, and the United States shipped radioactive dirt and debris to America for disposal.