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Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution. -
Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden -
The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel -
The term acid rain is coined by Robert Angus Smith in the book Air and Rain -
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 -
Effectively ended racial segregation in public schools. -
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man, prompting a year-long Montgomery bus boycott. -
Eisenhower signs the act into law to protect voter rights. The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another's right to vote. -
Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring -
Thousands of people took part in a protest for jobs and freedom. Martin Luther King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech as the closing address in front of the Lincoln Memorial. -
A bomb at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama kills four young girls and injures several other people prior to Sunday services. The bombing fuels angry protests. -
Lyndon B. Johnson signs the act into law, preventing employment discrimination due to race, color, sex, religion, or national origin. -
The black religious leader is assassinated during a rally by members of the Nation of Islam. -
President Johnson signs the act to prevent the use of literacy tests as a voting requirement. It also allowed federal examiners to review voter qualifications and federal observers to monitor polling places. -
The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise -
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray is convicted of the murder in 1969. -
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, providing equal housing opportunity regardless of race, religion, or national origin. -
Millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day. US Environmental Protection Agency established -
Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force -
The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reducing their emissions of carbon dioxide -
The U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol -
The U.S. announces it will cease participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation -
The U.S. announces it will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation