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1936
Milwaukee becomes the first American city to ban smoking on all public transportation. -
1948
In Donora, Pennsylvania, 7,000 people become ill and 20 die after severe air pollution from local manufacturing plants produces a deadly smog. -
1952
In London, at least 4,000 people die over the course of several days after pollutants from factories and fireplaces mix with air condensation. -
1955
Congress passes the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955, the first federal legislation dealing with air pollution. The act creates funding for air-pollution research. -
1962
Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring, a book that highlights the dangers of insecticides and other chemicals and helps influence the burgeoning environmental movement in the U.S. -
1963
Congress passes the Clean Air Act of 1963, the first federal legislation to focus on airpollution control. -
1969
Chemical waste released into Ohio's Cuyahoga River causes it to burst into flames. The Cuyahoga becomes a symbol of how industrial pollution is destroying America's natural resources -
1970
The first Earth Day is celebrated across the U.S. in an effort to raise awareness of the need to protect the nation's natural resources.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is established by President Richard Nixon to protect human health and safeguard the natural environment: air, water, and land. Today, the EPA has approximately 18,000 employees.
The Clean Air Act is revised to include stricter standards for air quality and auto emissions. -
1972
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments, later known as the Clean Water Act after it was amended in 1977, is enacted. The legislation regulates pollutant discharges into U.S. waterways and funds construction of sewage treatment facilities, among other activities. -
1975
The catalytic converter, a device used to significantly cut auto emissions and reduce air pollution, is invented. -
1984
: In Bhopal, India, 20,000 people die and 120,000 more are injured following a deadly methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant. -
1987
The Indoor Air Quality Act, which focuses on indoor air pollution, is introduced to Congress. -
1988
Syringes and other medical waste washes up onto beaches in New Jersey. Later that year, Congress passes the Ocean Dumping Ban Act, which outlaws dumping of municipal sewage sludge and industrial and medical waste into ocean waters -
1989
In one of the world's largest environmental disasters, oil tanker Exxon Valdez spills approximately 11 million gallons of crude oil into the sea off Alaska's Prince William Sound. The event, which caused a 3,000-square-mile oil slick, killed hundreds of thousands of birds, fish and other wildlife and has had a negative long-term environmental impact on the area. -
1990
In an effort to protect people from secondhand cigarette smoke, a ban against smoking aboard flights in the U.S. of six hours or less, is enacted. In 2000, federal regulation requires that all flights to and from the U.S. are smoke-free.
San Luis Obispo, California, becomes the world's first city to prohibit smoking in public buildings, including bars and restaurants. -
2002
California passes a landmark law requiring automakers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles by 30 percent by 2016. -
2003
Following the lead of other U.S. towns and cities, New York City bans smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants. -
2005
The Kyoto Protocol, which calls for participating nations to reduce greenhouse gases
that contribute to climate change, comes into effect. To date, President George Bush has rejected Kyoto, stating that it would hurt the U.S. economy because the protocol exempts China.