The first Earth Day mobilized 20 million Americans to call for increased protections for our planet. The organization of this event was inspired in part but the Santa Barbara Oil Spill of the 28th of January 1969 when an off-shore oil well owned by Union Oil blew out and spilled more than three million gallons of oil and killing thousands of seabirds, dolphins, seals, and sea lions and fouling the California coastline.
As a reaction to this disaster, activists were mobilized to create environmental regulation, environmental education, and Earth Day. [Earth Day website]