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Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution.
Franklin served as an unofficial host for delegates, opening his garden to them with a keg of dark beer or a cup of tea at the ready. And from 1762 to 1769, a "Philadelphia committee led by Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution." Finally, in 1797, Franklin's will stipulated the construction of a fresh water pipeline for Philadelphia, which led to the formation of the Philadelphia Water Commission. -
Declaration of Independence
The centrality of the Declaration of Independence (1776) to the developments of the 1770s is self-evident. From the Boston Tea Party to the shot heard round the world, Washington’s Crossing of the Delaware, and the Valley Forge winter, the American Revolution’s pursuit of liberty was made meaningful by the founding document of the great American experiment in democracy. -
Constitution of the United States of America
With the war won, independence secured, and the Articles of Confederation proving inadequate, the Founding Fathers laid down the law by which the new country would be governed in the elegantly crafted Constitution, which, depending upon one’s perspective, was meant to either evolve to meet changing circumstances or to be strictly interpreted to adhere to the Founders’ “original intent.” -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Territory, the huge swath of land (more than 800,000 square miles) that made up the western Mississippi basin, passed from French colonial rule to Spanish colonial rule and then back to the French before U.S. Pres. Thomas Jefferson pried it away from Napoleon in 1803 for a final price of some $27 million. -
Battle of New Orleans
On January 8, 1815, a ragtag army under the command of Andrew Jackson decisively defeated British forces in the Battle of New Orleans, even though the War of 1812 had actually already ended. News of the Treaty of Ghent (December 24, 1814) had yet to reach the combatants. -
the term acid rain is coined by Robert Angus Smith in the book Air and Rain
Robert Angus Smith analyzed rain water throughout the British Isles in the 19th century. He found high levels of acidity in rain water in manufacturing cities and towns. The most acidic rain he reported in his 1872 book Air and Rain was found in Glasgow, Scotland. -
Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden
Henry David Thoreau's classic Walden, or, A Life in the Woods is required reading in many classrooms today. But when it was first published—on August 9, 1854—it sold just around 300 copies a year. -
The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel
The term “ecology” was coined by the German zoologist, Ernst Haeckel, in 1866 to describe the “economies” of living forms. The theoretical practice of ecology consists, by and large, of the construction of models of the interaction of living systems with their environment (including other living systems). -
Plessy v. Ferguson
With the end of Reconstruction in the 1870s, the enactment of Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the South. In its 7–1 decision in the Plessy v. Ferguson case in May 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court gave constitutional sanction to laws designed to achieve racial segregation by means of separate and supposedly equal public facilities and services for African Americans and whites, thus providing a controlling judicial precedent that would endure until the 1950s. -
The term smog is coined by Henry Antoine Des Voeux in a London meeting to express concern over air pollution
Henry Antoine Des Voeux in his paper, “Fog and Smoke” for a meeting of the Public Health Congress in London[1]. He combined two words, smoke and fog, to create a new term smog. It referred to a type of air pollution that was caused by the heavy use of coal in industries and home heating. -
US Congress created the National Park Service
Through the Yellowstone and other early park acts, Congress set the course for a rich American legacy. The Organic Act, enacted in 1916, secured this new conservation direction by creating a National Park Service (NPS) and National Park System with a resource protection goal. -
Stock Market Crash
“The chief business of the American people is business,” U.S. Pres. Calvin Coolidge said in 1925. And with the American economy humming during the “Roaring Twenties” (the Jazz Age), peace and prosperity reigned in the United States…until it didn’t. The era came to a close in October 1929 when the stock market crashed, setting the stage for years of economic deprivation and calamity during the Great Depression. -
Rachel Carson published Silent Spring
Silent Spring is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
At the center of the widespread social and political upheaval of the 1960s were the civil rights movement, opposition to the Vietnam War, the emergence of youth-oriented counterculture, and the establishment and reactionary elements that pushed back against change. The April 4, 1968, assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the most prominent civil rights leader, revealed the tragic, violent consequences that could result from a country’s political polarization. -
The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise
Earthrise is a photograph of Earth and some of the Moon's surface that was taken from lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission. Nature photographer Galen Rowell described it as "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken". -
First Earth Day – April 22. Millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day. US Environmental Protection Agency established
Some 20 million people took part in the first Earth Day protests held across the United States on April 22, 1970. In New York City, the streets near Union Square Park were turned into an "ecological carnival" in one of the largest demonstrations the city had seen in decades -
Watergate Scandal
At the center of the widespread social and political upheaval of the 1960s were the civil rights movement, opposition to the Vietnam War, the emergence of youth-oriented counterculture, and the establishment and reactionary elements that pushed back against change. The April 4, 1968, assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the most prominent civil rights leader, revealed the tragic, violent consequences that could result from a country’s political polarization. -
Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force
The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (the Montreal Protocol) is an international agreement made in 1987. It was designed to stop the production and import of ozone depleting substances and reduce their concentration in the atmosphere to help protect the earth's ozone layer -
The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide
The Kyoto Protocol, a legally binding treaty was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on December 11, 1997 and entered into force on February 16, 2005. The Protocol commits industrialized countries to limit and reduce GHG emissions by 5.2% below the 1990s base year level by 2008–12 in aggregate (the first commitment period). -
U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol
In 2001, the U.S. formally rejected the Kyoto Protocol and looking back on Kyoto's track record that is a very good thing. Ultimately, 36 developed countries were legally bound to its GHG targets and 17 – nearly half – of them failed to meet their GHG targets. -
September 11 Attacks
Although terrorist attacks had been directed at the United States at the end of the 20th century, a new sense of vulnerability was introduced into American life on September 11, 2001, when Islamist terrorists crashed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the Pennsylvania countryside, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. -
Election of Donald Trump
Since at least the 1980s, the U.S. had been politically polarized by so-called culture wars that symbolically divided the country into Republican-dominated red states (typically characterized as conservative, God-fearing, pro-life, and opposed to big government and same-sex marriage) and Democrat-dominated blue states (theoretically liberal, secular, politically correct, and pro-choice). -
U.S. announces it will cease participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation
On June 1, 2017, United States President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would cease all participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation, contending that the agreement would "undermine" the U.S. economy, and put the U.S. "at a permanent disadvantage." -
U.S. announces it will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation
On January 20, on his first day in office, President Biden signed the instrument to bring the United States back into the Paris Agreement. Per the terms of the Agreement, the United States officially becomes a Party again today.