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Publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
A women in Massachusetts wrote a letter to a friend and set off a revolution. The letter writer was Olga Owens Huckins, and the friend was Rachel Carson. An airplane had sprayed Huckins' neighborhood with DDT to control mosquitoes, and the next day she found dead birds in her yard. She asked Carson who is a biologist to look into the connection. -
Publication of Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique
Betty's book caused a sensation in the suburbs of America. Her book addressed the women who had everything that society said they should want: husbands who were good providers, heathly children, a house in the suburbs-often even the time and money to futnish and refurnish the comfortable homes they ran for their familes. But the twist of her story is that many of the women were not happ, and when they said so they were often called "neurotic" or not normal. -
Publication of Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed
Unsafe at Any Speed is a book detailing resistance by car manufacturers to the introduction of safety features, like seat belts, and their general reluctance to spend money on improving safety. It was a pioneering work, openly polemical but containing substantial references and material from industry insiders. It made Nader a household name. -
NOW is founded
In 1966 a group of 28 professional women including Betty Friedan established the National Organization for Women which is bettet know as NOW. -
UFW’s Nationwide Boycott of grapes picked on nonunion farms
The UFW's first target was the grape growers of California. Chávez, like Martin Luther King, Jr., believed in nonviolent action. In 1967, when growers refused to grant more pay, better working conditions, and union recognition, Chávez organized a successful nationwide consumer boycott of grapes picked on nonunion farms. Later boycotts of lettuce and other crops also won consumer support across the country -
Woodstock
The diverse strands of the counterculture all came together at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in August 1969. About 400,000 people gathered for several days in a large pasture in Bethel, New York, to listen to the major bands of the rock world. Despite brutal heat and rain, those who attended the Woodstock festival recalled the event with something of a sense of awe for the fellowship they experienced there. -
Congress passes the Clean Air Act
Passed by Congress in 1970 in response to public concerns about air pollution, the Clean Air Act was designed to control the pollution caused by industries and car emissions. The EPA forged an agreement with car manufacturers to install catalytic converters (devices that convert tailpipe pollutants into less dangerous substances) in cars to reduce harmful emissions. -
First Earth Day celebration
In 1969, Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin announced plans to hold a national day of discussion and teaching about the environment. The following year, on April 22, 1970, Americans celebrated the first Earth Day. Organizers stressed the important role that Americans could play in improving awareness of environmental issues and in bringing an end to environmental damage. Earth Day would become a yearly observance. Its aim was to heighten concern for the environment, to increase awareness. -
The EPA is established
One of the EPA's early responsibilities was to enforce the Clean Air Act. Passed by Congress in 1970 in response to public concerns about air pollution, the Clean Air Act was designed to control the pollution caused by industries and car emissions. The EPA forged an agreement with car manufacturers to install catalytic converters (devices that convert tailpipe pollutants into less dangerous substances) in cars to reduce harmful emissions. -
Supreme Court rules to legalize abortion in the Roe v. Wade case
A landmark social and legal change came in 1973, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the controversial Roe v. Wade decision. The justices based their decision on the constitutional right to personal privacy, and struck down state regulation of abortion in the first three months of pregnancy. However, the ruling still allowed states to restrict abortions during the later stages of pregnancy. The case was, and remains, highly controversial, with radical thinkers on both sides of the argum -
Protesters from the AIM take over the reservation at Wounded Knee
An even more dramatic confrontation came in 1973 at the Oglala Sioux village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. In 1890, the army's Seventh Cavalry had massacred more than 200 Sioux men, women, and children there. The Pine Ridge reservation around the village was one of the country's poorest, with half of its families living on welfare. In February 1973, AIM took over the village and refused to leave until the United States government agreed to investigate the treatment of Indians and the poor condi
