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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 -
In November 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik 2, carrying a dog named Laika on board - she died a few hours into the mission from overheating and panic. -
The Sputnik 1 satellite was launched by the USSR on 4 October 1957. It was the first man-made object to leave the Earth's atmosphere. -
Yuri Gagarin was the first man to go to space, in a Vostok spacecraft. He made a single orbit of Earth in 108 minutes. -
Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring -
Valentina Tereshkova, a former textile worker, became the first woman to be launched into space by the Soviet Union, she went around the earth 49 times. -
Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov carried out the first-ever spacewalk from the two-man Voskhod spacecraft -
The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise -
American Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon. -
First Earth Day, April 22. Millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day. US Environmental Protection Agency established -
Russia launched Salyut, the first space station. -
Bruce McCandless became the first person to do a spacewalk without being attached to the spacecraft. -
Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force. -
1997 — The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide.
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Assembly of the ISS began with the launch of its first module, Zarya, on a Proton rocket from Baikonur. -
U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol
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Dennis Tito, a billionaire businessman from California, became the first paying passenger to go to outer space. -
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