On April 22, 1970, about 20 million Americans stepped outside, picked up trash, planted trees, marched, and listened to speeches at parks, schools, and city streets. It was the very first Earth Day, and it became the biggest public demonstration in U.S. history up to that point. Crowds packed Fifth Avenue in New York City, students at the University of Michigan held a 'teach-in' that lasted four days, and college kids dressed up as smog clouds in Philadelphia.
The idea came from Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, who was fed up with polluted rivers, dirty air, and oil spills. In 1969, an oil rig off the coast of Santa Barbara, California had dumped three million gallons of crude into the ocean, killing thousands of seabirds. Nelson decided the country needed a giant wake-up call. He teamed up with a young activist named Denis Hayes and they organized the event in just a few months.
Earth Day worked. Within months, the U.S. created the Environmental Protection Agency, and Congress passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act. Today over a billion people in nearly 200 countries take part in Earth Day every year, doing everything from beach cleanups to tree-planting marathons. One single day in April lit a spark that helped clean rivers, save bald eagles, and remind humans that we share this planet with everything else living on it.
