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Publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
Almost 30 years after its publication, the book Silent Spring (Carson, 1962b) is instantly recognized, evoking ominous images of DDT, bird and fish kills, and pesticide danger. The book can still galvanize reaction in readers and engender controversy. -
Publication of Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique
The Feminine Mystique, published February 19, 1963,[1] by W.W. Norton and Co., is a nonfiction book written by Betty Friedan. It is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. -
NOW is founded
NOW was founded on June 30, 1966, in Washington, D.C., by 28 women and men attending the Third National Conference of the Commission on the Status of Women, the successor to the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. It had been three years since the Commission reported findings of women being discriminated against. However, the 1966 Conference delegates were prohibited by the administration's rules for the conference from even passing resolutions recommending to end sex discrimination -
UFW’s Nationwide Boycott of grapes picked on nonunion farms
The UFW strikes Giumarra Vineyards Corp., California's largest table grape grower. In response to a UFW boycott, other table grape growers allow Giumarra to use their labels. So the UFW begins a boycott of all California table grapes. Meanwhile, strikes continue against other grape growers in the state. -
Woodstock
Woodstock Music & Art Fair (informally, Woodstock or The Woodstock Festival) was a music festival, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music". It was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre (2.4 km²; 240 ha, 0.94 mi²) dairy farm near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969. Bethel, in Sullivan County, is 43 miles (69 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, in adjoining Ulster County. -
First Earth Day celebration
Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this first Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations. Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year. -
The EPA is established
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or sometimes USEPA) is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress.[2] The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon and began operation on December 3, 1970, after Nixon submitted a reorganization plan to Congress and it was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. -
Supreme Court rules to legalize abortion in the Roe v. Wade case
was a landmark, controversial decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that right must be balanced against the state's two legitimate interests for regulating abortions: protecting prenatal life and protecting the mother's health. -
Protesters from the AIM take over the reservation at Wounded Knee
On Feb. 27, 1973, traditional members of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) tribe and activists from the American Indian Movement (AIM) occupied the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, a protest designed to draw attention to the deplorable living conditions on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the corrupt rule of Richard Wilson, head of the tribal council.