Today in History

Today in History: April 22

Earth Day

Earth Day was first observed on April 22, 1970, when an estimated 20 million people nationwide attended the inaugural event.  Senator Gaylord Nelson promoted Earth Day, calling upon students to fight for environmental causes and oppose environmental degradation with the same energy that they displayed in opposing the Vietnam War.

In July 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in response to the growing public demand for cleaner water, air, and land—its mission to protect the environment and public health. Earth Day also was the precursor of the largest grassroots environmental movement in U.S. history and the impetus for national legislation such as the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. By the twentieth anniversary of that event, more than 200 million people in 141 countries had participated in Earth Day celebrations.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, the EPA was announcing new requirements for improving air quality in national parks and wilderness areas and establishing regulations requiring more than 90 percent cleaner heavy-duty highway diesel engines and fuel.

See the special presentation Chronology of Selected Events in the Development of the American Conservation Movement in the collection The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920 to learn about milestones in U.S. efforts to preserve and protect the Earth. These efforts include the designation of some of America's most majestic national parks such as Mt. Rainier, Yosemite, Acadia, and the Grand Canyon.

John Burroughs, John Muir, and Luis Agassiz Fuertes (at the outset of his career as the nation's most notable ornithological painter since Audubon) were among the scientists, naturalists, and artists who produced an album documenting the 1899 Harriman Alaska Expedition.  As such, they can be considered political and cultural progenitors of Earth Day.  See also the Albert K. Fisher Papers—Fisher was a member of the Harriman Expedition from Meeting of Frontiers, a bilingual, multimedia English-Russian digital library that tells the story of the American exploration and settlement of the West, the parallel exploration and settlement of Siberia and the Russian Far East, and the meeting of the Russian-American frontier in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.

fuertes ainting
Bird Painting, Louis Agazzis Fuertes, artist, July 22, 1899,
The Harriman Alaska Expedition: Chronicles and Souvenirs (page 190), May to August 1899.
The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920