Historical Chronology

1798

Essay on the Principle of Population published by Thomas Robert Malthus, in which he warned about the dangers of unchecked population growth.

1830

World population is one billion.

1849

U.S. Department of the Interior established.

1854

Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden, a work that inspired many people to live simply and in harmony with nature.

1864

Yosemite in California becomes the first state park in the United States.

1864

George Perkins Marsh publishes Man and Nature, described by some environmentalists as the fountainhead of the conservation movement.

1869

Ernst Haeckel coins the term ecology to describe "the body of knowledge concerning the economy of nature."

1872

Yellowstone in Wyoming becomes the first national park.

1875

American Forestry Association founded to encourage wise forest management.

1879

U.S. Geological Survey established.

1890

Yosemite becomes a national park.

1892

John Muir founds the Sierra Club to preserve the Sierra Nevada mountain chain.

1892

Henry S. Salt publishes Animal Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress, a landmark work on animal rights and welfare.

1892

Adirondack Park established by New York State Constitution, which mandated that the region remain forever wild.

1898

Rivers and Harbors Act established in an effort to control pollution of navigable waters.

1900

Lacey Act regulating interstate shipment of wild animals in the United States is passed.

1902

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation established.

1905

National Audubon Society formed.

1908

Chlorination is used extensively in U.S. water treatment plants for the first time.

1913

Construction of Hetch-Hetchy Valley Dam approved to provide water to San Francisco; however, the dam also floods areas of Yosemite National Park.

1914

Martha, the last passenger pigeon, dies in the Cincinnati Zoo.

1916

U.S. National Park Service established.

1918

Save-the-Redwoods League founded.

1918

U.S. and Canada sign treaty restricting the hunting of migratory birds.

1920

Mineral Leasing Act enacted to regulate mining on federal land.

1922

Izaak Walton League founded.

1924

Gila National Forest in New Mexico is designated the first wilderness area.

1930

Dust Bowl.

1933

Tennessee Valley Authority created to assess impact of hydropower on the environment.

1934

Taylor Grazing Act enacted to regulate grazing on federal land.

1935

U.S. Soil Conservation Service established to study and curb soil erosion.

1935

Wilderness Society founded by Aldo Leopold.

1936

National Wildlife Federation established.

1943

Alaska Highway completed, linking lower United States and Alaska.

1944

Norman Borlaug begins his work on high-yielding crop varieties.

1946

U.S. Bureau of Land Management created.

1946

Atomic Energy Commission established to study the applications of nuclear power. It was later dissolved in 1975, and its responsibilities were transferred to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Energy Research and Development Administration.

1947

Defenders of Wildlife founded, superseding Defenders of Furbearers and the Anti-Steel-Trap League, to protect wild animals and their habitat.

1949

Aldo Leopold publishes A Sand County Almanac, in which he sets guidelines for the conservation movement and introduces the concept of a land ethic.

1952

Oregon becomes first state to adopt a significant program to control air pollution.

1954

Humane Society founded in United States.

1956

Construction of Echo Park Dam on the Colorado River is aborted, due in large part to the efforts of environmentalists.

1959

St. Lawrence Seaway is completed, linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.

1961

Agent Orange is sprayed in Southeast Asia, exposing nearly 3 million American servicemen to dioxin, a probable carcinogen.

1962

Silent Spring published by Rachel Carson to document the effects of pesticides on the environment.

1963

First Clean Air Act passed in the United States.

1963

Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union to stop atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons.

1964

Wilderness Act passed, which protects wild areas in the United States.

1965

Water Quality Act passed, establishing federal water quality standards.

1966

Eighty people die in New York City due to pollution-related causes.

1967

Supertanker Torrey Canyon spills oil off the coast of England.

1967

Environmental Defense Fund established to save the osprey from DDT.

1967

American Cetacean Society founded to protect whales, dolphins, porpoises, and other cetaceans. Considered the oldest whale conservation group in the world.

1968

Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and National Trails System Act passed to protect scenic areas from development.

1969

Greenpeace founded.

1970

First Earth Day celebrated on April 22.

1970

National Environmental Policy Act passed, requiring environmental impact statements for projects funded or regulated by federal government.

1970

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created.

1971

Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) founded to improve food production in developing countries.

1972

U.N. Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm to address environmental issues on a global level.

1972

Clean Water Act passed.

1972

Use of DDT is phased out in the United States.

1972

Coastal Zone Management Act and Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act passed.

1972

Oregon becomes first state to enact bottle-recycling law.

1972

Limits to Growth published by the Club of Rome, calling for population control.

1973

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) signed to prevent the international trade of endangered or threatened animals and plants.

1973

Endangered Species Act passed.

1973

Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) institute an embargo preventing shipments of oil to the United States.

1973

Cousteau Society founded by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his son to educate the public and conduct research on marine-related issues.

1973

E. F. Schumacher publishes Small Is Beautiful, which advocates simplicity, self-reliance, and living in harmony with nature.

1974

Safe Drinking Water Act passed, requiring EPA to set quality standards for the nations drinking water.

1975

Atlantic salmon is found in the Connecticut River after a 100-year absence.

1975

The Monkey Wrench Gang published by Edward Abbey, who advocates radical and controversial methods for protecting the environment, including "ecotage."

1976

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act passed, giving EPA authority to regulate municipal solid and hazardous waste.

1976

Poisonous gas containing 2,4,5-TCP and dioxin is released from a factory in Seveso, Italy, causing massive animal and plant death. Although no human life was lost, a sharp increase in deformed births was reported.

1976

Land Institute founded by Wes and Dana Jackson to encourage more natural and organic agricultural practices.

1978

Residents of Love Canal, New York, are evacuated after Lois Gibbs discovers that the community was once the site of a chemical waste dump.

1978

Oil tanker Amoco Cadiz runs aground, spilling 220,000 tons of oil.

1979

Three Mile Island Nuclear Reactor almost undergoes nuclear melt-down when the cooling water systems fail. Since this accident no new nuclear power plants have been built in the United States.

1980

Mount St. Helens explodes with a force comparable to 500 Hiroshima-sized bombs.

1980

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund) enacted to clean up abandoned toxic waste sites.

1980

Global 2000 Report published, documenting trends in population growth, natural resource depletion, and the environment.

1980

Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act enacted, setting aside millions of acres of land as wilderness.

1980

Thomas Lovejoy proposes the idea of debt-for-nature swap that helps developing countries alleviate national debt by implementing policies to protect the environment.

1980

Earth First! founded by Dave Foreman, with the slogan "No compromise in the defense of Mother Earth."

1982

Bioregional Project founded to promote the aims of the bioregional movement in North America.

1984

Emission of poisonous methyl isocyanate vapor, a chemical by-product of agricultural insecticide production, from the Union Carbide plant kills more than 2800 people in Bhopal, India.

1985

Rainforest Action Network founded.

1985

Ozone hole observed over Antarctica.

1986

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station undergoes nuclear core melt-down, spreading radioactive material over vast parts of the Soviet Union and northern Europe.

1986

Evacuation of Times Beach, Missouri, due to high levels of dioxin.

1987

Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching published by Dave Foreman, in which he describes spiking trees and other "environmental sabotage" techniques.

1987

Our Common Future (The Brundtland Report) is published.

1987

Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer signed by 24 nations, declaring their promise to decrease production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

1987

Yucca Mountain designated the first permanent repository for radioactive waste by the U.S. Department of Energy.

1987

World population is five billion.

1988

Ocean Dumping Ban Act established.

1988

Global ReLeaf program inaugurated with the motto "Plant a tree, cool the globe" to address the problem of global warming.

1989

Oil tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of oil.

1990

Oil Pollution Act signed, setting liability and penalty system for oil spills as well as a trust fund for clean up efforts.

1990

Clean Air Act amended to control emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.

1991

Mount Pinatubo in Philippines erupts, shooting sulfur dioxide 25 miles into the atmosphere.

1991

Persian Gulf War begins.

1991

Train containing the pesticide meta sodium falls off the tracks near Dunsmuir, California, releasing chemicals into the Sacramento River. Plant and aquatic life for 43 miles downriver die as a result.

1991

Over 4,000 people die from cholera in Latin American epidemic.

1992

U.N. Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1992

Mexico City, Mexico, shuts down as a result of incapacitating air pollution.

1992

Captive-bred California condors and black-footed ferrets reintroduced into the wild.

1992

United Nations calls for an end to global drift net fishing by the end of 1992.

1993

Braer oil tanker runs aground in the Shetland Islands, Scotland, spilling its entire cargo into the sea.

1993

Forest Summit convened in Portland, Oregon, by President Bill Clinton, who met with loggers and environmentalists concerned with the survival of the northern spotted owl.

1993

Norway resumes hunting of minke whales in defiance of a ban on commercial whaling instituted by the International Whaling Commission.

1993

Eight people from Biosphere 2 emerge after living two years in a self-sustaining, glass dome.

1995

Ken-Sara Wiwa is executed in Nigeria for protesting and speaking out about oil industry practices in the country. Shell Oil Co. takes criticism for its role in the matter.

1997

Forest fires worldwide burn a total of five million hectares of forest

1997

Julia Butterfield Hill climbs a 180 ft (55 m) redwood tree in California to protest the logging of the surrounding forest as well as to protect the tree. The tree was eventually named Luna and Julia Butterfield Hill removed herself from the tree in 1999 after she negotiated a deal to save the tree and an additional three acres of the forest.

1997

Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, is born.

1997

Kyoto Protocol mandates a reduction of reported 1990 emissions levels by 6–8% by 2008.

1997

Monserrat volcano erupts.

1999

World population reaches six billion.

1999

World Trade Organization (WTO) conference in Seattle, Washington, is marked by heavy protests, highlighting WTO's weak environmental policies.

2000

During his presidency, Bill Clinton appropriated a total of 58 million acres of wilderness as conservation land—the largest amount of land to be set aside for conservation by any other president to date.

2000

Russian nuclear submarine the Kursk sinks off the coast of Minsk, Russia.

2000

West Nile virus discovered in the eastern United States.

2001

Draft of human genome sequence published.

2001

The United States does not ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

2001

The World Trade Center towers in New York collapse after being struck by two commercial airplanes commandeered by terrorists. A third airplane is crashed into the Pentagon building just outside Washington, D.C., causing loss of life and major damage to the building.

2001

War on Terrorism begins.

2002

U.N. Earth Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

2002

EPA adopts California emissions standards for off-road recreation vehicles to be implemented by 2004.

2002

President George W. Bush introduces the Clear Sky Initiative that will restrict the amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and mercury emitted into the atmosphere by industry. If passed, the Clear Sky plan will build upon the Clean Air Act.

2002

EPA announces its Strategic Plan for Homeland Security to support the National Strategy for Homeland Security enacted after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.

2002

Three Gorges Dam is 70% complete. Filling of the reservoir will begin in 2003 and will demand the relocation of 1.13 million people. Critics worry about the stability of the dam, as well as the ecological effects it will have when fully operational in 2009.

2002

President George W. Bush signs Bill approving the using of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste storage site.

2002

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus is found in patients in China, Hong Kong, and other Asian countries. The newly discovered coronavirus is not identified until early 2003. The spread of the virus reaches epidemic proportions in Asia and expands to the rest of the world.

2002

EPA Administer Christine Todd Whitman resigns after only two years in office. The Bush Administration's resistance to environmental progress is cited as one of the primary reasons for the resignation.

Source: Environmental Encyclopedia 3. Gale, 2003.