Twelve young activists depart from Burrard Inlet aboard a chartered 24-metre fishing boat, the Phyllis Cormack, bound for Amchitka Island, Alaska to try and prevent the American government from detonating a nuclear bomb underwater. Worried the testing could trigger devastating tsunamis, the motley crew initially called themselves the Don't Make a Wave Foundation, but soon ended up themselves making waves of their own under their new nom de guerre, Greenpeace.
Forced back by rough seas, the group tried again aboard a 47-metre former mine sweeper but never actually made it to the test zone in the Aleutian Islands to stop the detonation of three bombs.
However, they nonetheless caused enough global outrage to force the Americans to finally put a stop to the practice.
In 2011, the City of Vancouver formally declared Sept. 15 to be Greenpeace Day in the environmental organization’s honour.
