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Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution.
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Demonstrated his diving bell built of tinned copper with space for a crew of 2-3 persons, equipped with a compass and methods of communication to the surface, successfully diving down to about 16 meters with Ljungström and an assistant on board, and wrote a book on the organization of private underwater diving.
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Built an autonomous diving suit, using a copper pipe curved in the form of a horseshoe, displacing about 50 pounds of water, and worn at the waist, as an air reservoir that fed compressed air through a manually operated valve and a hose into an airtight rubberized hip-length tunic with integral hood.
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He invented a twin-hose demand regulator. On 19 June 1838, in London, England, Mr. William Edward Newton filed a patent (no. 7695: "Diving apparatus") for a diaphragm-actuated, twin-hose demand valve for divers.
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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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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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Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus was demonstrated to the public in Paris and adopted by the French Navy.
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With no relation with the Commeinhes family, Émile Gagnan obtained a Rouquayrol-Denayrouze apparatus in Paris. He miniaturized and adapted it to gas generators since the Germans occupy France and confiscated the French fuel for war purposes. Gagnan's boss and owner of the Air Liquide company decided to introduce Gagnan to Jacques-Yves Cousteau, his son-in-law They met in Paris in December 1942 and adapted Gagnan's regulator to a diving cylinder.
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After fixing some technical problems, Cousteau and Gagnan patented the first modern demand regulator. Air Liquide built two more aqualungs: these three are owned by Cousteau but also at the disposal of his first two diving companions Frédéric Dumas and Taillez. They use them to shoot the film Épaves (Shipwrecks), the first underwater film shot using scuba sets.
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They published an article about Cousteau's underwater archaeology at Grand Congloué island near Marseille. This started a massive public demand for aqualungs and diving gear, and in France and America, the diving gear makers started making them as fast as they could.
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The first nuclear-powered submarine was launched. The first manned dives in the bathyscaphe FNRS-2 were made. The first scuba certification course in the USA was offered by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. The training program was created by Albert Tillman and Bev Morgan and is now known as LA County Scuba
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Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring
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The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise
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The first known rebreather with electronic monitoring was produced. The Electrolung, designed by Walter Starke, was subsequently bought by Beckman Instruments but discontinued in 1970 after a number of fatalities.
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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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James Cameron piloted the Deepsea Challenger 10,898.4 meters (35,756 feet) to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in the ocean.
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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