April 22, 1998 marks the 28th Anniversary of the first Earth Day. Originally called "The First National Environmental Teach-in," Earth Day was modelled after the anti-Vietnam war teach-ins of the late 1960s.
As former Senator Gaylord Nelson recalled in an October 1990 speech: "...[T]he idea for Earth Day occurred to me in late July 1969, while on a conservation speaking tour out West. At the time there was a great deal of turmoil on the college campuses over the Vietnam War. Protests, called anti-war teach-ins, were being widely held on campuses across the nation.. I read an article on the teach-ins, and it suddenly occurred to me, why not have a nationwide teach-in on the environment?
"That was the origin of Earth Day."
April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day, also marked the 100th Anniversary
of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's birth.
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