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1769 — Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution.
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1854 — Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden
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1866 — The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel
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1872 — The term acid rain is coined by Robert Angus Smith in the book Air and Rain
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1905 — The term smog is coined by Henry Antoine Des Voeux in a London meeting to express concern over air pollution
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1916 — US Congress created the National Park Service
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1957 Sputnik
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1961 Gagarin, First Man
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1962 — Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring
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First landing on mars
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1968 — The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise
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1969 First man on the moon
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1970 — 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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1971 first space station
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1981 first reusable spacecraft
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1989 — Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force
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1990 first space telescope in orbit
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1997 — The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide
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2001 — U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol
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2001 space tourist
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2008 first private space program Spacex
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2014 comet landing
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2017 — U.S. announces it will cease participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation
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2021 — U.S. announces it will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation