Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, moved by the damage from a massive oil spill off Santa Barbara, California, in 1969, proposed a national day of environmental teach-ins modelled on anti-war protests. The organizer Denis Hayes, then 25, coordinated events at thousands of schools, colleges and communities. Within the year Congress had created the Environmental Protection Agency and passed the Clean Air Act, followed by the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.
By the late 1960s, Americans had watched the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland catch fire and seen beaches in Santa Barbara coated with crude oil from a blown-out well. Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat from Wisconsin, recruited a Republican congressman, Pete McCloskey, as co-chair and announced plans for a national teach-in on the environment. He hired Denis Hayes, a Harvard graduate student, to organize it. The date, a Wednesday in April, was chosen to fall between spring break and final exams.
On April 22, 1970, the response exceeded anyone's expectations. In New York, Fifth Avenue was closed to traffic and crowds filled Union Square. About 10,000 schools and 2,000 colleges held events, and Congress adjourned so members could speak at home. Some protests were theatrical: students in several cities buried a car.
The political consequences were swift. The Environmental Protection Agency began operating in December 1970, and the Clean Air Act passed the same month. In 1990 Earth Day went global, and it is now marked in more than 190 countries.
Key people: Gaylord Nelson, Denis Hayes, Pete McCloskey