timeline

Philadelphia committee led by Benjamin Franklin attempts to regulate waste disposal and water pollution.

1769

Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden

1852

Harpers Ferry

Oct 16, 1859

Abolitionist John Brown attempts to start a rebellion by taking over the Harpers Ferry arsenal.

Attack on Fort Sumter

Apr 12, 1861

South Carolina could not tolerate a federal fort blocking an important sea port.

First Battle of Bull Run

Jul 21, 1861

the northern press and public were eager for the Union Army to make an advance on Richmond ahead of the planned meeting of the Confederate Congress there on July 20.

Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack

Mar 8, 1862

part of a Confederate effort to break the Union blockade of Southern ports, including Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia, that had been imposed at the start of the war.

The Battle of Shiloh

Apr 6, 1862

the Confederate Army launched a surprise attack on Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant

Antietam

Sep 17, 1862

The Maryland Campaign was Lee's first attempt to take the war North and it was McClellan who was tasked by President Abraham Lincoln with stopping him.

Emancipation Proclamation

Jan 1, 1863

freed slaves only in Confederate states still at war with the Union on January 1, 1863

Gettysburg

Jun 1, 1863

The plan was to try and get some leverage in the North by forcing Northern politicians to stop prosecuting the war.

Draft Riots

Aug 21, 1863

three days of rioting to protest drafting of soldiers to fight for the Union, leaves 1,000 people dead in New York City.

The Battle of Atlanta

Jul 22, 1864

wanting to neutralize the important rail and supply hub, defeated Confederate forces defending the city under John B. Hood.

The term ecology is coined in German as Oekologie by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel

1866

The term acid rain is coined by Robert Angus Smith in the book Air and Rain

1872

The term smog is coined by Henry Antoine Des Voeux in a London meeting to express concern over air pollution

1905

US Congress created the National Park Service

1916

Rachel Carson publishes Silent Spring

1962

The Apollo 8 picture of Earthrise

1968

First Earth Day – April 22. Millions of people gather in the United States for the first Earth Day. US Environmental Protection Agency established

1970

Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer entered into force

1989

The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December. Countries commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide

1997

U.S. rejects the Kyoto Protocol

2001

U.S. announces it will cease participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation

2017

U.S. announces it will rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation

2021