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Period: to
Era of Activism
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Publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring
Silent Spring was widely credited with helping launch the contemporary American environmental movement. The author, Rachel Carson, was a well-known writer on natural history. It was inspired widespread public concerns with pesticides and pollution of the environment. Silent Spring facilitated the ban of the pesticide DDT[3] for agricultural use in 1972 in the United States. The book documented detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds. -
Publication of Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique
Feminine Mystique was a groundbreaking feminist book. In her book, Betty Friedan discussed her discovery of a problem that had formed within post-World War II society that she called, "the problem that has no name." Also, in her book, Betty Friedan examined and confronted this stay-at-home mom role for women. -
Congress passes the Clean Air Act
The Clean Air Act is a United States federal law designed to control air pollution on a national level. It requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and enforce regulations to protect the public from airborne contaminants known to be hazardous to human health. Major amendments to the law, requiring regulatory controls for air pollution, passed in 1970, 1977, and 1990. -
Publication of Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed
Unsafe at Any Speed is a book accusing car manufacturers of resistance to the introduction of safety features, like seat belts, and their general reluctance to spend money on improving safety. It was written by Ralph Nader. -
NOW is founded
NOW was a feminist organization founded in 1966. It has a membership of 550,000. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The founders included Betty Friedan (the author of The Feminine Mystique (1963), who was also NOW's first president), Rev. Pauli Murray, the first African-American female Episcopal priest, and Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for President of the United States of America. -
Woodstock
The Woodstock festival was when more than half a million people came together - united in a message of peace, openness and cultural expression – and demonstrated how a generation could be heard. It was 3 Days of Peace and Music. It involved lots of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll - plus a lot of mud. The Woodstock Music Festival of 1969 has become an icon of the 1960s hippie counterculture. -
First Earth Day Celebration
The First Earth Day Celebration events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection. It also capitalized on the emerging consciousness, channeling the energy of the anti-war protest movement and putting environmental concerns front and center. The Earth Day founder is Gaylord Nelson. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. -
The EPA is established
The EPA is an agency of the U.S. federal government which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon. -
Protesters from the AIM take over the reservation at Wounded Knee
The AIM was a Native American activist organization in the United States, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with an agenda that focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty. The founders included Dennis Banks, George Mitchell, Herb Powless, Clyde Bellecourt, Harold Goodsky, Eddie Benton-Banai, and a number of others in the Minneapolis Native American community. -
Supreme Court rules to legalize abortion in the Roe v. Wade case
The decision was written by Justice Harry Blackmun and based on the residual right of privacy, struck down dozens of state antiabortion statutes. The decision was based on two cases, that of an unmarried woman from Texas, where abortion was illegal unless the mother's life was at risk, and that of a poor, married mother of three from Georgia, where state law required permission for an abortion from a panel of doctors and hospital officials.
