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Philadelphia committee
Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution. -
Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden
Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden to live deliberately, to confront the essentials, and to extract the meaning of life as it is, good or bad. -
Ecology by Ernst
The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel -
Acid Rain Robert Angus
The term acid rain is coined by Robert Angus Smith in the book Air and Rain -
smog by Henry Antoine Des Voeux
The term smog is coined by Henry Antoine Des Voeux in a London meeting to express concern over air pollution -
US Congress created the National Park Service
Through the Yellowstone and other early park acts, Congress set the course for a rich American legacy. The Organic Act, enacted in 1916, secured this new conservation direction by creating a National Park Service ( and National Park System with a resource protection goal. -
Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring
Carson's research on the effect of insecticides (specifically on bird populations coupled with her moving prose made Silent Spring a best-seller, though chemical companies attacked it as unscientific. -
Telescope in Space
The first step towards the realization of this dream was made in 1968, when OAO-2 was launched into orbit, becoming the first ultraviolet space telescope -
First satellite in Orbit
The Sputnik 1 spacecraft was the first artificial satellite successfully placed in orbit around the Earth and was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at Tyuratam -
Explorer 6 Mission
It was a small, spheroidal satellite designed to study trapped radiation of various energies, galactic cosmic rays, geomagnetism, radio propagation in the upper atmosphere, and the flux of micrometeorites. -
The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise
On Christmas Eve, 1968 the crew of Apollo 8 captured a spectacular sight as they orbited the Moon: the illuminated Earth appearing above the barren lunar horizon. -
First Earth Day
April 22. Millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day. US Environmental Protection Agency established -
Landing On Mars
US spacecraft Viking 1 becomes the first to successfully land on Mars and send back images of the Red Planet. -
Voyager Probes
Although the Voyager 2 Probe was sent into space in 1977, it was the first object to venture beyond our Solar System, and reach interstellar -
Space Shuttle Columbia
The US space shuttle Columbia, the first reusable manned spacecraft, makes its first voyage. -
deplete the ozone layer
Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force -
Hubble SpaceTelescope
Hubble is the first space telescope to be placed into orbit. -
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide -
International Space Station
The ISS maintains an orbit with an average altitude of 400 kilometres (250 mi) and circles the Earth in roughly 93 minutes, completing 15.5 orbits per day -
U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol
because it exempts 80 percent of the world, including major population centers such as China and India, from compliance, and would cause serious harm to the US economy. -
Comet Landing
the European Space Agency places a small robot, Philae, on a comet more than 500 million kilometres from Earth. The first comet lander is part of a mission aiming to explore the origins of the Solar System. -
cease participation in the Paris Agreement
U.S. announces it will cease participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation -
Paris Agreement
U.S. announces it will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation -
First man in orbit
First American in Orbit The small Mercury Friendship 7 spacecraft carries John H. Glenn, Jr., the first American in orbit, and orbits the Earth three times July 20, 1969