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John Muir
John Muir was a Scottish-American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States. -
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Walden is an American book written by noted transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings. -
Homestead Act
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Yellow stone National Park founded
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American Forestry Association founded
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Yosemite plus Sequoia National Park founded
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Sierra Club founded
The Sierra Club is one of the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organizations in the United States. -
Lacey Act founded
The Lacey Act of 1900, or simply the Lacey Act is a conservation law in the United States that prohibits trade in wildlife, fish, and plants that have been illegally taken, possessed, transported or sold. -
Golden Age of Conservation
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First National Wild Life Refuge established
The National Wildlife Refuge System is the system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants. -
US Forrest Service founded
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres. Major divisions of the agency include the National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, and the Research and Development branch. -
Gifford Pinchot
Gifford Pinchot was an American forester and politician. Pinchot served as the first Chief of the United States Forest Service from 1905 until his firing in 1910, and was the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania. -
Aldo Leopold
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Audubon Society founded
The National Audubon Society is an American, non-profit, environmental organization dedicated to conservation. -
Antiquties Act
The Antiquities Act of 1906, is an act passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906. This law gives the President of the United States the authority to, by executive order, restrict the use of particular public land owned by the federal government. -
US National Park Service founded
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Civilian Conservation Corps founded
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Taylor Grazing Act
The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 is a United States federal law that provides for the regulation of grazing on the public lands (excluding Alaska) to improve rangeland conditions and regulate their use. -
Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act
Under the Act, any person who hunts ducks, geese, swans or brant and is 16 years of age or older must carry a current Duck Stamp on which he has written his signature in ink. This qualifies the hunter as a legal wildfowl hunter, provided he has a state-hunting license. -
Fish plus Wildlife Service founded
Under the Act, any person who hunts ducks, geese, swans or brant and is 16 years of age or older must carry a current Duck Stamp on which he has written his signature in ink. This qualifies the hunter as a legal wildfowl hunter, provided he has a state-hunting license. -
Wilderness Act
The Wilderness Act of 1964 was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected 9.1 million acres of federal land. -
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
The National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act was an outgrowth of the recommendations of a Presidential commission, the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission (ORRRC). -
Cuyaahoga River in Ohio caught fire
The Cuyahoga River is located in Northeast Ohio in the United States and feeds Lake Erie. The river is famous for being "the river that caught fire," helping to spur the environmental movement in the late 1960s. -
National Enviromental Policy Act
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is a United States environmental law that established a U.S. national policy promoting the enhancement of the environment and also established the President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). -
First Earth Day
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Enviromental Protection Agency established
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Clean Air established
The Clean Air Act is a United States federal law designed to control air pollution on a national level. It requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and enforce regulations to protect the public from airborne contaminants known to be hazardous to human health. -
Endangered Species Act
It was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation. -
FIFRA
The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) is a United States federal law that set up the basic U.S. system of pesticide regulation to protect applicators, consumers, and the environment. -
OPEC and Oil Embargo
Arab oil producers declared an embargo that drastically limited the shipment of oil to the United States. These producers, members of a cartel known as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), enforced the embargo in response to the Yom Kippur War between Egypt and Israel. In a gesture of support for Egypt OPEC curtailed oil exportation to countries that supported the Israelis. -
Ronald and Molina (UCI) announce the CFC's are depleting the ozone layer
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RCRA
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), enacted in 1976, is the principal federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste. -
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution.[ -
Surface Mining Contril and Reclamation Act
The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) is the primary federal law that regulates the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States. -
Love Canal, NY
Love Canal was a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, located in the LaSalle section of the city. It officially covers 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city, along 99th Street and Read Avenue. -
Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial nuclear meltdown that occurred on March 28, 1979 in one of the two Three Mile Island nuclear reactors in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It was the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. -
Bhopal, Island
The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak incident in India, considered the world's worst industrial disaster. -
Chernobyl
The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities of the Soviet Union. -
Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. -
Energy Policy Act
The act, described by proponents as an attempt to combat growing energy problems, changed US energy policy by providing tax incentives and loan guarantees for energy production of various types. -
Desert Protection Act
The California Desert Protection Act of 1994 is a federal law (Public Law 103-433), signed by President Bill Clinton, and passed by the United States Congress on October 8, 1994, that established the Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks and the Mojave National Preserve in the California desert. -
Kyoto Protocol
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World population hits 6 billion
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IPCC Report on climate change
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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
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CERCLA (Supefund)
Superfund or Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) is a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances as well as broadly define "pollutants or contaminants". -
Exxon Valdez
Oriental Nicety, formerly Exxon Valdez, Exxon Mediterranean, SeaRiver Mediterranean, S/R Mediterranean, Mediterranean, and Dong Fang Ocean was an oil tanker that gained notoriety after running aground. -
Silent Spring published by Rachel Carson
Silent Spring is an environmental science book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin on September 27, 1962.
