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World Population Reaches 1 Billion
It is estimated that the population of the world reached one billion for the first time in 1804. -
Lacey Act
When the Lacey Act was passed in 1900, it became the first federal law protecting wildlife. Today it regulates the import of any species protected by international or domestic law and prevents the spread of invasive, or non-native, species. -
Establishment of National Forests
Congress established the Forest Service in 1905 to provide quality water and timber for the Nation's benefit. Over the years, the public has expanded the list of what they want from national forests and grasslands. -
Migratory Bird Act
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) was passed in 1918 to combat over-hunting and poaching that supplied the enormous demand for feathers to adorn women's hats, when it was clear that the state-level hunting laws were insufficient and bird populations were being decimated. -
Bald Eagle Protection Act
n 1940, Congress passed a law to protect our national symbol, the Bald Eagle. This act, called the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, made it illegal to possess, sell, hunt, or even offer to sell, hunt or possess bald eagles. This includes not only living eagles, but also their feathers, nests, eggs, or body parts. -
Public Health Service Act
It gave the United States Public Health Service responsibility for preventing the introduction, transmission and spread of communicable diseases from foreign countries into the United States. -
Everglades National Park
An unparalleled landscape of exceptional beauty, Everglades National Park encompasses 1.5 million acres of subtropical wilderness in South Florida. Everglades National Park was established on December 6, 1947, and 70 years later, it remains an international treasure attracting visitors from around the world. -
Antarctic Treaty System
The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively known as the Antarctic Treaty System, regulate international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only continent without a native human population. -
World Population Reaches 3 Billion
The world population was estimated to have reached 3 billion in 1960. -
Silent Spring Published
Silent Spring is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. The book was published on September 27, 1962, documenting the adverse environmental effects caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Wikipedia -
Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act is the United States' primary federal air quality law, intended to reduce and control air pollution nationwide. Initially enacted in 1963 and amended many times since, it is one of the United States' first and most influential modern environmental laws. -
Wilderness Act
The Wilderness Act of 1964 was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. It created the legal definition of wilderness in the United States, and protected 9.1 million acres of federal land. -
Water Quality Act
The Water Quality Act of 1965 required states to issue water quality standards for interstate waters, and authorized the newly created Federal Water Pollution Control Administration to set standards where states failed to do so. -
National Environmental Policy Act
The National Environmental Policy Act is a United States environmental law that promotes the enhancement of the environment and established the President's Council on Environmental Quality. The law was enacted on January 1, 1970. -
First Earth Day
Earth Day, an event to increase public awareness of the world's environmental problems, is celebrated in the United States for the first time on April 22, 1970. -
EPA formed
The Environmental Protection Agency is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. It began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. -
DDT Banned
In 1972, EPA issued a cancellation order for DDT based on its adverse environmental effects, such as those to wildlife, as well as its potential human health risks. -
U.N. Environment Programme created
The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) was founded in June 1972 as a result of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. The UNEP is the coordinating body for the United Nations' environmental activities. -
World Environment Day
The UN General Assembly designates 5 June as World Environment Day, marking the first day of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Another resolution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, leads to the creation of UN Environment Programme. -
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act establishes the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and regulating quality standards for surface waters. -
OPEC oil embargo
OPEC members launched an oil embargo in retaliation against US involvement in the Arab-Israeli War. Although the embargo only targeted five countries – Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States – the effects were felt worldwide. -
Endangered Species Act
Through federal action and by encouraging the establishment of state programs, the 1973 Endangered Species Act provided for the conservation of ecosystems upon which threatened and endangered species of fish, wildlife, and plants depend. -
Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species
CITES is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals. The convention was opened for signature in 1973 and CITES entered into force on 1 July 1975. -
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, enacted in 1976, is the principal federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste. -
Toxic Substances Control Act
The Toxic Substance Control Act, administered by the EPA, was established to ensure that the human health and environmental effects of chemical substances are identified and properly controlled prior to placing these materials into commerce. -
Alternative Energy Institute
Alternative Energy Institute was West Texas A&M University's alternative energy research branch. Formed in 1977, the program was nationally and internationally recognized, and along with research provides education and outreach around the U.S. and the globe. -
Love Canal Disaster
Twenty five years after the Hooker Chemical Company stopped using the Love Canal here as an industrial dump, 82 different compounds, 11 of them suspected carcinogens, have been percolating upward through the soil, their drum containers rotting and leaching their contents into the backyards and basements of 100 homes. -
Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 reactor in Pennsylvania. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history. -
Union Carbide plant explosion
The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak incident on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. It is considered among the world's worst industrial disasters. -
Chernobyl Nuclear Explosion
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is the worst nuclear disaster in history both in cost and casualties. -
The Montreal Protocol
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, also known simply as the Montreal Protocol, is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances that are responsible for ozone depletion. -
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker owned by Exxon Shipping Company that was bound for Long Beach, California struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef, 1.5 mi (2.4 km) west of Tatitlek, Alaska at 12:04 a.m. and spilled 10.8 million US gallons (257,000 bbl) (or 37,000 tonnes)[1] of crude oil over the next few days. -
Gulf War Oil Spill
The Gulf War oil spill, or the Persian Gulf oil spill, was one of the largest oil spills in history, resulting from the Gulf War in 1991. In January of 1991, Iraqi forces allegedly began dumping oil into the Persian Gulf to stop a U.S. coalition-led water landing on their shores. -
First UN Earth Summit
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the 'Earth Summit', was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3-14 June 1992. -
Food Quality Protection Act
The Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 directs the Secretary of Agriculture to collect pesticide residue data on commodities most frequently consumed by infants and children. -
World Food Summit
The World Food Summit took place from 13 to 17 November 1996. This historic event, convened at FAO headquarters in Rome, comprised five days of meetings at the highest level with representatives from 185 countries and the European Community. -
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that global warming is occurring and that human-made CO₂ emissions are driving it. -
BP Oil Spill
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considered to be the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and estimated to be 8 to 31 percent larger in volume than the previous largest, the Ixtoc I oil spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico. -
World Population reaches 7 billion
On Halloween, 2011, the world population reached 7 billion people.