Environmental Science Historical Timeline

  • Public Health Service Act

    Public Health service act enacted, legislation allowed marine hospitals to care for merchant seamen. Expanded many times.
  • National Park Service Act

    Established the National Park Service in the U.S with the purpose of preserving nature and wildlife for future generations.
  • Bald Eagle Protection Act

    Bald Eagle Protection Act
    Bald Eagle Protection Act is put in effect, making it a crime to hunt bald and golden eagles.
  • Antarctic Treaty System

    Antarctic Treaty System
    The Antarctic Treaty System regulated international relation in respect to Antarctica, and established Antarctica as a scientific preserve.
  • Clean Air Act

    Clean Air Act
    First form of the Clean Air Act passed, legtislation that intially research before working on solving air pollution problems.
  • Endangered Species Conservation Act

    Passed by Congress, this act permitted the listing of native U.S animal species as endangered and allowed for limited protections upon those animals.
  • Endangered Species Preservation Act

    The Endangered Species Preservation Act is passed, allowing the listing of native U.S. animal species as endangered and for limited protections
  • Silent Spring is published

    Silent Spring is published
    Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is published, which is credited with helping to launch the American Environmental movement.
  • National Environmental Protection Act

    National Environmental Protection Act is enacted, called for “productive harmony” with the environment.
  • First Earth Day

    First Earth Day
    Earth Day became the first opportunity people had to join in a nationwide demonstration to help preserve and protect the earth.
  • Clean Air Act reauthorized

    Clean Air Act is reauthorized and greatly expanded
  • EPA is formed

    Environmental Protection Agency is created to help protect the health of humans and the environment, and does so by creating and enforcing laws and regulations based on laws passed by congress.
  • UN Environment program is created

    UN Environment Program, which coordinates UN environmental activities and helps the UN to implement environmentally sound procedures in developing countries, is formed
  • Clean Water Act

    Clean Water Act is passed with goals of eliminating high concentrations of toxic substances in the water.
  • DDT is banned

    DDT, a pestocide proven to have extreme adverse environmental effects, becomes banned after three years of government investigation.
  • Endangered Species Act

    Endangered Species Act, legislation to protect and prevent the extinction of species, is signed into law.
  • Toxic Substances Control Act

    Prohibits the manufacture and importation of chemicals that are not on the TSCA inventory.
  • Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

    Gives the EPA the authority to regulate hazardous waste from "cradle to grave."
  • Love Canal tradgedy

    Love Canal tradgedy
    After years of the Hooker Chemical company dumping hazardous waste into the ground and burying it, the city bought the land for only one dollar, and after a good deal of time passed, many birth defects and health issues arrose.
  • Three Mile Island Accident

    Three Mile Island Accident
    A partial nuclear meltdown that occured in one of the U.S. Three Mile Island nuclear reactors in Pennsylvania.
  • Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion

    Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion
    Chernobyl nuclear reactor suffers a catastrophic meltdown.
  • Exxon Valdez oil spill

    Exxon Valdez oil spill
    Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil.
  • Establishment of US Green Building Council

    Establishment of US Green Building Council
    US clean building council is formed to promote sustainability and energy effeciency in how buildings are built
  • Food Quality Protection Act

    The Food Quality Protection Act mandated a health based standard for the use of pestocides in food, as well as establish incentives for the creation of safer pestocides