IMPORTANT EVENTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

1826 John James Audubon publishes "The Birds of America."
1859 First oil well drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania
1867 John Muir makes 1,000 mile walk from Kentucky to Florida. Muir becomes known as the "Father of the Environmental Movement." Muir eventually goes on to form the Sierra Club.
1907 Theodore Roosevelt outlines an ambitious conservation program
1916 National Park Service established as part of the department of the interior.
1920's Ansel Adams prints famous photographs of Yosemite National Park.
1938 Natural Gas Act
1945 America drops two atomic bombs on Japan.
1946 Atomic Energy Act is established.
1956 Water Pollution Conrol Act is written into law.
1960 OPEC is formed.
1962 Rachel Carson publishes "Silent Spring." (Brings national attention to long-term damage caused by chemical pesticides.)
1965 Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Act is enacted.
1970 National Environmental Policy Act is signed by President Nixon which leads to the creation of the Clean Air Act.
1970 The Environmental Protection Agency is created.
April 22, 1970 The first "Earth Day" is celebrated!
1972 Endangered Species and Conservation Act is written into law.
1973 - 1974 OPEC nations impose an oil embargo which results in what has become known as the "
Eenergy Crisis."
1975 Maximum speed established at 55 mph to conserve gasoline.
1978 Love Canal (Niagra Falls, New York) declared a disaster.
March 28, 1979 Three Mile Island reactor core overheats.
1979 The movie "China Syndrome" is released bringing national attention to the dangers of nuclear energy.
1980 Superfund established to allocate money to clean up toxic waste sites.
1980 The first living organism is produced by way of biotechnology. (A bacterium that eats petroleum)
1986 Clean Water Act is passed to facilitate the construction of sewage treatment plants.
April, 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster claims lives in Russia.
March, 1989 Supertanker Exxon Valdez runs aground spilling 11 million gallons of oil in Prince William Sound, Alaska.
1991 700 Kuwati oil wells set on fire by retreating Iraqi forces.
December, 1995 A symposium of 2,500 scientists from around the world declare that man is the main cause of global warming in Madrid, Spain.
1995 - 1996 Republican controlled congess attempts to dismantle the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act but President Clinton resists.
1998 The United Nations declares this year to be the "International Year of the Ocean" to bring awareness about the pollution and overfishing that is taking place in the world's seas.
1999 Unusual weather hits New Jersey and the middle-atlantic states (summer drought followed by back to back hurricanes).