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Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution.
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The Declaration of Independence states God made all men equal and gave them the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;
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The framers of the Constitution separated the powers of government into three branches, granting legislative power (the power to pass laws) to Congress, executive power (the power to administer the laws) to the president, and judicial power (the power to interpret and enforce the laws) to the courts.
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an uprising by citizens who refused to pay a liquor tax that had been imposed by Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton to raise money for the national debt and to assert the power of the national government.
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President Thomas Jefferson pried Louisiana away from Napoleon in 1803 for a final price of some $27 million.
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a ragtag army under the command of Andrew Jackson decisively defeated British forces in the Battle of New Orleans
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the United States would not intervene in European affairs, but likewise it would not tolerate further European colonization in the Americas or European interference in the governments of the American hemisphere.
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brought to a close the Mexican-American War (1846–48) and seemingly fulfilled the Manifest Destiny of the United States championed by President James K. Polk by adding 525,000 square miles of formerly Mexican land to the U.S. territory.
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Henry David Thoreau published Walden
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set the table for the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as president, which ultimately precipitated secession and war.
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in the small Pennsylvania crossroads town of Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee’s invading Army of Northern Virginia sustained a defeat so devastating that it sealed the fate of the Confederacy
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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 7th Cavalry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer was vanquished by Lakota and Northern Cheyenne warriors led by Sitting Bull in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Although it was a major victory for the Northern Plains people against U.S. expansionism, the battle marked the beginning of the end of Native American sovereignty over the West.
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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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Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring
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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