Photos: Scenes from the first Earth Day, 50 years ago today
Outrage over the burning Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, an oil spill that killed thousands of seabirds off the California coast and a plunging bald eagle population blamed on pesticides drew millions of people to the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.
Here are some scenes from the demonstrations that occurred 50 years ago today:
FILE - In this April 8, 1970, file photo, Denis Hayes, Head of Environment Teach-In, Inc., the Washington organization coordinating activities for Earth Day on April 22, poses in the group's office in Washington. Teach-ins on the environmental pollution crisis an overpopulation are planned for school campuses across the country that day. (AP Photo/Charles W. Harrity)
Judy Moody works in a poster-filled office of the Environment Teach-In, Inc., in Washington, April 9, 1970. The organization is coordinating school activities for the nationwide observance of Earth Day on April 22. (AP Photo/Charles W. Harrity)
FILE - In this April 22, 1970 file photo, a Pace College student in a gas mask "smells" a magnolia blossom in City Hall Park on Earth Day in New York. (AP Photo)
FILE - In this April 22, 1970 file photo, hundreds listen to Earth Day speakers after cleaning up New York's Union Square Park. (AP Photo)
Children of the convent of the sacred Heart School in New York City man brooms April 22, 1970 as they clean a monument in the city's Union Square. The children came out in force in observance of "Earth Day". (AP Photo).
An estimated 7,000 persons jam a quadrangle at the Independence Mall in Philadelphia, during Earth Week activities celebrating the eve of Earth Day, April 22, 1970. (AP Photo)
** FILE ** In this April 22, 1970, file photo, Dinah Campi demonstrates against pollution in Miami, dressed in an American flag while participating in Earth Day activities. (AP Photo/Toby Massey)
FILE - In this April 22, 1970, file photo, demonstrators stand around wooden boxes with men and women during an Earth Day mock funeral at Logan International Airport, Boston. The group held a rally protesting the airport's air pollution, expansion and the coming of super sonic jets. Some 15 demonstrators were arrested by state police who charged them with blocking foot passages in the lobby of the airport. (AP Photo).
A woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty poses on a float full of trash during Earth Day observances in Florida in 1970. (AP Photo)
A group of Clark College students attempted to dramatize air pollution by taking walks around Vancouver wearing gas masks as an Earth Week project, April 21, 1970. "We’re trying to show the effects of pollution, but most ignore us," said one of them, Ken Cochran. (AP Photo)
Kenneth Opat is squirted with oil pistols by Dorothy Goldsmith, left, and Rita Webb, at Tulane University in New Orleans as students tagged Louisiana's oil industry with the "polluter of the month" award, April 22, 1970. The demonstration was part of the first observance of Earth Day. (AP Photo)
A participant at Earth Day celebrations at Union Square in New York City carries sign protesting killing, April 22, 1970. Thousands crowded the square, where official observances were held, and Fifth Avenue all the way to 59th Street, where vehicles powered by internal combustion engines were banned. (AP Photo)
** FILE** In this April 22, 1970 file photo "Earth Day" demonstrators trying to dramatize environmental pollution conclude their rally at the Interior Department in Washington, leaving spilled oil in their wake. The oil was used to protest pollution by off-shore oil drilling. (AP Photo)
Julie Pierce emerged from the Milwaukee River covered with filth and oil as her Shorewood High School conducted a constructive demonstration by cleaning debris from the shoreline of a park in Shorewood, a Milwaukee suburb, April 22, 1970. The high school junior was participating in the national observance of Earth Day. (AP Photo/Paul Shane)
Only a few pieces of debris are left behind after a small section of the estimated 20,000 person crowd attended Philadelphia's Earth Day observance, April 23, 1970. Participants were told to "leave nothing behind" and they obviously followed instructions. (AP Photo/Bill Ingraham)
A small section of the estimated 20,000 person crowd which attended Philadelphia's Earth Day observance sits shoulder to shoulder, April 23, 1970. (AP Photo/Bill Ingraham)
FILE - In this April 23, 1970, file photo, part of crowd observing Earth Day, including, youngster wearing "Let Me Grow Up:" sign on back relaxes on hilltop in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. (AP Photo)
FILE - In this April 23, 1970, file photo, a band attracts crowd's attention at Milwaukee's Performing Arts Center where area youths met to protest pollution in general and in the Milwaukee River. They paddled around on the dirty water for a while and then spent the remainder of the evening listening to the music. (AP Photo)
Gov. Russell W. Peterson heaves a large box of trash into a dump truck in Camden, Delaware, April 25, 1970. Peterson and the rest of the state are part of a massive clean up program in conjunction with Earth Week activities. (AP Photo)
Gov. Russell W. Peterson and his wife Lillian lend a hand in the massive state wide clean up campaign in Camden, Delaware, April 25, 1970. The effort is in conjunction with Earth Week activities in the state. (AP Photo)
Workmen from the U.S. Parks Service clean up debris left behind from yesterday's Earth Day gathering, April 23, 1970. The scene was made with an extreme wide-angle lens. (AP Photo/Bob Daugherty)
Earth Day is April 22.
From getting to work to how we heat our homes and more, people impact the environment in many ways. As we celebrate Earth Day on April 22, explore the data and get a primer on the history of the environmental holiday.