HOW EARTH DAY CAME ABOUT

Earth Day is the name given to two different annual observances that are intended to raise awareness about a wide range of environmental issues and problems, and to inspire people to take personal action to address them. Expect for that general goal, the two events are unrelated, even though both were founded about a month apart in 1970 and both have gained wider acceptance and popularty ever since. In the United States, most people celebrate Earth Day on April 22, but there is another celebration that predates that one by approximately a month and is celebrated internationally.

The Fist Earth Day

The first Earth Day celebration took place on March 21, 1970, the vernal equinox that year. It was the brainchild of John McConnell, a newspaper publisher and influential community acivist, who proposed the idea of a global holiday called Earth Day at a UNESCO Conference on the Environment in 1969. McConnell suggested an annual observance to remind the people of Earth of their shared responsibility as environmental stewards. He chose the vernal equinox – the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere, the first day of autumn in the southern hemisphere – because it is a day of renewal.

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