Earth Day Born: The Environmental Movement Takes Root
Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin organized the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, inspired by the energy of anti-war protests and a massive oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, in 1969. Twenty million Americans participated, roughly 10% of the US population, making it the largest civic event in American history to that date. Teach-ins were held at thousands of colleges and schools. The immediate political impact was extraordinary: within eight months, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency. The Clean Air Act passed in 1970, the Clean Water Act in 1972, and the Endangered Species Act in 1973. Earth Day is now observed in 192 countries, and the date has become the unofficial birthday of the modern environmental movement.
April 22, 1970
56 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on April 22
The Senate just outlawed a man named Maximinus Thrax for ordering mass executions in Rome itself. Then, terrified and desperate, they shoved two old senators, P…
They didn't find gold, but 400 acres of red wood. Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet arrived in April 1500 with 1,200 men and a ship full of sailors who'd never seen …
Pedro Alvares Cabral's fleet of 13 ships, sailing to India via the western Atlantic route, sighted the coast of Brazil on April 22, 1500, near present-day Porto…
Henry VIII became King of England on April 22, 1509, at age 17, following the death of his father Henry VII. He was athletic, intelligent, and popular, a stark …
Hernán Cortés founded Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, establishing the first Spanish municipality on the Mexican mainland. By creating this legal entity, he bypasse…
They sold the Moluccas for 350,000 ducats to fix a map error. Portugal got the spice islands; Spain got nothing but a line drawn through empty ocean. Two kings …
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