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Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution. -
Henry David Thoreau published Walden. -
The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel
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The term acid rain is coined by Robert Angus Smith in the book Air and Rain
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The term smog is coined by Henry Antoine Des Voeux in a London meeting to express concern over air pollution
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US Congress created the National Park Service
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President Harry Truman issues Executive Order in 9981 to end segregation in the Armed Services. -
A consolidation of five cases into one, is decided by the Supreme Court, effectively ending racial segregation in public schools. Many schools, however, remained segregated. -
A 14 year old from chicago is brutally murdered in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His murders are acquitted, and the case bring international attention to the civil rights movement after Jet magazine publishes a photo of Till's beaten body at his open casket funeral. -
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. Her defiant stance prompts a year long Montgomery bus boycott. -
Sixty Black pastors and civil rights leaders from several southern states- including Martin Luther King Jr. meet in Atlanta, Georgia to coordinate nonviolent protests against racial discrimination and segregation. -
Nine Black students known as "Little Rock Nine" are blocked from integrating into Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. President Dwight D. Eisenhower eventually sends federal troops to escort the students, however, they continue to be harassed. -
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law to help protect voter rights. The law allows federal prosecution of those who suppress another’s right to vote. -
Four African American college students in Greensboro, North Carolina refuse to leave a Woolworth’s “whites only” lunch counter without being served. The Greensboro Four—Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil—were inspired by the nonviolent protest of Gandhi. The Greensboro Sit-In, as it came to be called, sparks similar “sit-ins” throughout the city and in other states. -
Six-year-old Ruby Bridges is escorted by four armed federal marshals as she becomes the first student to integrate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. Her actions inspired Norman Rockwell’s painting The Problem We All Live With -
Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring
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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. -
The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise
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First Earth Day – April 22. Millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day. US Environmental Protection Agency established
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Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force
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The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide
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U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol
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U.S. announces it will cease participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation
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U.S. announces it will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation