and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. By the end of that year, the first Earth Day had led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. “It was a gamble,” Gaylord recalled, “but it worked.” http://www.earthday.org/about/the-history-of-earth-day/
Why Earth Day?
According to Nelson, the moniker “Earth Day” was “an obvious and logical name” suggested by “a number of people” in the fall of 1969, including, he writes, both “a friend of mine who had been in the field of public relations” and “a New York advertising executive,” Julian Koenig. Koenig, who had been on Nelson’s organizing committee in 1969, has said that the idea came to him by the coincidence of his birthday with the day selected, April 22; “Earth Day” rhyming with “birthday,” the connection seemed natural. Other names circulated during preparations—Nelson himself continued to call it the National Environment Teach-In, but national coordinator Denis Hayes used the term Earth Day in his communications and press coverage of the event was “practically unanimous” in its use of “Earth Day,” so the name stuck. There are actually two Earth Day anthems: 1. UNESCO has termed Indian poet-diplomat Abhay Kumar’s idea of an official Earth Anthem as a creative and inspiring thought that would contribute to bringing the world together.[45] Kumar’s “Earth Anthem” has been translated into eight languages including all official languages of the United Nations viz. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish.[46] The other two languages are Hindi and Nepali. It was launched in June 2013 on the occasion of the World Environment Day by Kapil Sibal and Shashi Tharoor It is also supported by the global organization Habitat For Humanity.