While many know April 22 as International Earth Day, the first Earth Day occurred 50 years ago on March 21, 1970, predating the inaugural April environmental celebrations by a few weeks.
The two Earth Days are unrelated, according to liveabout.com, although both promote the similar environmental theme of stewardship of Mother Earth.
"International Mother Earth Day is celebrated to remind each of us that the Earth and its ecosystems provide us with life and sustenance. This Day also recognizes a collective responsibility ... to promote harmony with nature and the Earth, to achieve a just balance among the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations of humanity." — The United Nations
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According to news station KCRW, it all started with an oil spill.
Three million gallons of oil spread around 800 square miles off the coast of California, the largest spill that had happened to date in 1969.
"People were interested in conserving the environment, but it was for commerce. They wanted to protect our rivers and soil so that we could increase crop yields. It was all for the benefit of human society," said Pacific Standard reporter Kate Wheeling in an interview with KCRW. "I think with the '69 oil spill, people had this realization that we should protect the environment for the environment's sake."
John McConnell, now known as the father of Earth Day, introduced the idea of a global holiday at the UNESCO Conference on the Environment later that year.
He settled on the vernal equinox to become home to this holiday. Equinoxes are days of balance, he argued, when the day is the same length as the night.
"McConnell believed that Earth Day should be a time of equilibrium when people could put aside their differences and recognize their common need to preserve Earth's resources," according to an article about the history of Earth Day.
The first Earth Day was celebrated March 21, 1970, and continues to be remembered by the United Nations on the spring equinox annually since.
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Every year, they celebrate by ringing the Peace Bell at U.N. headquarters in New York at the moment of the vernal equinox.
"May there only be peaceful and cheerful Earth Days to come for our beautiful Spaceship Earth as it continues to spin and circle in frigid space with its warm and fragile cargo of animate life." — U.N. Secretary-General U Thant
U Thant officially established International Earth Day on the vernal equinox on Feb. 26, 1971.
There are weeklong environmental celebrations April 22 as well, after the first “Environmental Teach-In” proposed by U.S. politicians in 1970.
With a cause as important as the well-being of our planet, Earth Day remains a holiday worth remembering twice annually in the 50 years since.
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