The whole story...
Events leading up to the first Earth Day, and the progress made since.
1962 - Silent Spring by marine biologist Rachel Carson was published, exposing how the popular pesticide DDT was poisoning the food chain in American waters.
1963 - JFK's President's Science Advisory Committee reported it's findings on Ms. Carson's case against sythetic pesticides, vindicating her conculsions. "[We are] challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves," Carson remarked before she died of breast cancer in 1964.
Dec 1968 - Astronaut William Anders took a color photo of the Earth rising over the horizon of the moon from outer space during the Apollo 8 mission, illustrating the beauty and magnificence of the planet on which we all live.
Jan 1969 - A massive oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California wreaking havoc on 35 miles of coastline and killing seabirds, dolphins, sea lions, and elephant seals, prompted national outrage and a visit from President Nixon.
Jun 1969 - The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire from all the chemical contaminants being dumped into it by local industry, gaining national attention.
Feb 1970 - President Nixon sent a special message to Congress... "[W]e... have too casually and too long abused our natural environment. The time has come when we can wait no longer to repair the damage already done, and to establish new citeria to guide us into the future... The tasks that need doing require money, resolve and ingenuity, and they are too big to be done by government alone... government, industry and individuals all are called on to do their share of the job and to pay their share of the cost."
Apr 22 1970 - Senator Gaylord Nelson announced a teach-in on college campuses to be held on April 22, which grew into a larger movement across the country, bringing together more than 20 million Americans (10% of the total population at the time), sill one of the largest protests in American history. The first Earth Day.
Jul 1970 - Nixon proposed a new government agency to Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency, which Congress then created in December 1970.
Apr 22 1990 - Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries.
Apr 22 1992 - the first United Nations Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro.
Apr 22 2016 - the Paris Climate Agreement was signed by 175 countries.
April 18, 2024 - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced ahead of Earth Day, 2024, it will now auction off leases of public lands for conservation and restoration in addition to traditional auctioning for drilling, recognizing conservation as an essential component of public lands management.