A few things I didn't know about Earth Day until today.
From The Huffington Post...
- John McConnell, a peace activist whose interest in the planet grew from his experience working in a plastic factory, proposed an Earth Day in 1969.
- Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) saw the damage from the major Santa Barbara, Calif., oil spill and got fired up, so he asked Congress to make Earth Day official.
- President Nixon tried to gain some political capital by signing legislation called the National Environmental Protection Act, which gave birth to the EPA, right before what most people consider the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970.
- The huge amount of young activism in the United States in the 1960s caused leaders to choose April 22 for Earth Day. The story is that April 22 was chosen because college students would be likely to be available. It falls between spring break and final exams.
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