Earth Day was formed to make people aware about the changes we are introducing in the Earth’s environment. It was initiated to bring about a movement in our society so that everybody gets empowered to make this planet live a longer life.
The idea for this day was first introduced by a peace activist, John McConnell in 1969. The first Earth Day was celebrated in San Francisco after the proclamation of Mayor Joseph Alioto.

The Earth Day was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson on April 22, 1970 as an environmental teach-in.

First Earth Day, 1969

The idea of nationwide tech-in day about environment was announced by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson in Seattle on September 20, 1969. On September 29, 1969, writer Gladwin Hill published an article in New York Times article on the senator’s idea. Darren Hayes, a Harvard graduate student on reading the article, traveled to Washington. Nelson asked Hayes to drop out of Harvard and assemble a staff for directing the effort to organize the United States.

Earth Day 1990

Earth Day was turned into a substantial event by Senator Nelson and Bruce Anderson, New Hampshire’s lead organizer in 1990 and formed the Earth Day USA. The day was coordinated by Earth Day USA for the next 5 years, including the launch of earthday.org. Earth Day activities in 1990 significantly increased the recycling efforts worldwide. This helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Earth Day Network

The network was founded by Denis Hayes and the organizers of the first Earth Day, 1970 and many national organizers. The international members included NGOs, governmental agencies, activists, etc. All the members were working to educate people about the environmental problems and to promote the environmental activism and protection. Earth Day organizations were formed in many countries by Earth Day Network.

Earth Week

The Earth Week originated in Philadelphia from April 16-22 in 1970. This was celebrated by a committee of students, professionals, organizations, leaders and businessmen concerned about the environment. The Earth Week Committee of Philadelphia thought that a day was not enough for the environment so they originated this week.

Earth Day Flag

The official flag was formed by the combination of two letters ‘E’ and ‘O’. These two letters represented environment and organism.  The presentation of flag was similar to the Stars and Stripes on the US Flag. The colors on the flag represent pure air, green land and environmental action.

Another flag was also associated with this day. It represents a NASA image of Planet Earth with the blue background. But this flag is not official.

Useful Resources:

History of Earth Day

Earth Day Revolution

Thumbnail images from:

Senator Gaylord Nelson

Denis Hayes

Official Earth Day Flag

Unofficial Earth Day Flag