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Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution
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Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden
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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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Inventors Wilbur and Orville Wright succeed in the first sustained and manned plane flight, taking the heavier-than-air machine through the winds of Kill Devil Hill, North Carolina, and man into an age of flight. The plane, mechanically propelled with a petroleum engine, flew 120 feet in 12 seconds, and later the same day, flew 852 feet in 59 seconds. They would patent the Airplane three years later on May 22, 1906. -
The term smog is coined by Henry Antoine Des Voeux in a London meeting to express concern over air pollution
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Conflict comes to the entire world as the United States is drawn into the first World War against a foe that would not go away for thirty years, Germany. One million American soldiers would fight in that war. -
US Congress created the National Park Service
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The decade begins in depression, which dug so deep into the soul and conscience of the nation that only a World War could really make a dent in its depth. Franklin Roosevelt dominated the decade and more with a presidency that saw us through that war and brought us many of the Great Society programs we have today. -
Troops from the United States and other Allied nations land on the beach at Normandy, France in 1944, beginning the western European invasion that would lead to defeat of Nazi Germany. -
It was a time for chickens in every pot, two cars in every garage, color television, another war, and a space race to the stars. -
There were Civil Rights to be won and legislation that would assist. And there was a war, the Vietnam war, that caused divide. It was a decade of turmoil that saw one President shot, another with the fatigue of war, and a third, who would not last until the end of his terms. -
Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring
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The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise
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Watergate. The end of Vietnam. Normal relations with China. Earth Day. It was a nation in flux, one turning in small measures to a computer age, even if that computer was originally the size of a house. -
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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Prosperity comes again and the Cold War ends. Plus there's Olympic triumphs and controversy, the personal computer age born, and a Supreme Court justice with a difference. -
Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force
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A presidential scandal amidst prosperity and a world that is beginning to show signs of the conflicts to come with the first Gulf War and attacks in New York City. -
The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide
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When the hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the Shanksville field on September 11, 2001, there was no denying that a new order had emerged. It was a war against our way of life, a war of terror, and our response would dominate the decade and years come. -
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