April
April 17, 1951
American Steel and Wire Co. settles the Donora, Pennsylvania smog disaster suits for a reported $235,000 in Pittsburgh April 17. Some 130 suits seeking $4,643,000 were filed as a result of the 1948 disaster in which 20 persons died and 5,190 were made ill.
April 4, 1968
Martin Luther King assassinated supporting Memphis TN sanitation workers strike. for environmental and economic justice.
April 22, 1970
The first nationwide Earth Day celebration is organized by Sen. Gaylord Nelson and Dennis Hayes. It creates a national political presence for environmental concerns. Millions of Americans demonstrate for air and water cleanup and preservation of nature.
April 27, 1975
The Phyllis Cormack, now the Greenpeace V, heads out of Vancouver's English Bay on behalf of The Great Whale Conspiracy. The campaign is a celebrated media event, catching the International Whaling Commission by surprise, and represents the beginning of the end for commercial whaling.
April 26, 1986
Chernobyl nuclear reactor explodes and goes into a full-scale melt-down in Ukraine following an experimental procedure. Over two thousand square miles of land are contaminated and enormous amounts of radiation are released worldwide.