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Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin
attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution. -
1854 — Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden
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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
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first artificial Earth satellite
Sputnik 1 U.S.S.R. -
first animal in space
dog Laika aboard Sputnik 2 U.S.S.R. -
first pictures of the far side of the Moon
Luna 3 by the U.S.S.R. -
first human to orbit Earth
Yury Gagarin on Vostok 1 U.S.S.R. -
Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring
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first data returned from another planet (Venus)
Mariner 2 U.S. -
first woman in space
Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6 U.S.S.R. -
first space walk
Aleksey Leonov on Voskhod 2 U.S.S.R. -
first death during a space mission
Vladimir Komarov on Soyuz 1 U.S.S.R. -
The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise
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first human to walk on the Moon
Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11 U.S. -
First Earth Day
Millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day. US Environmental Protection Agency established -
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 that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide -
U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol
-
first spacecraft to fly by Pluto
New Horizons U.S. -
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