The date of Earth Day, April 22, stems from an earlier observance, Arbor Day.

J. Sterling Morton was a Nebraska pioneer,

a writer and editor for Nebraska’s first newspaper, and later secretary of the Nebraska Territory.

He advocated planting trees in what was then a dusty and treeless prairie.

At a meeting of the State Board of Agriculture in January 1872,

Morton proposed that Nebraska citizens set aside April 10 as a day to plant trees.

It’s said that Nebraskans planted about one million trees on that first Arbor Day in 1872.

Ten years later, in 1882, Nebraska declared Arbor Day as a legal holiday and the date was changed to Morton’s birthday, April 22.

Arbor Day grew to become a national observance and is now observed in Nebraska on the last Friday in April,

which is also when National Arbor Day is observed.

It seemed natural to schedule April 22, 1970 – Arbor Day – as the first Earth Day.

I recall the first Earth Day

and Bangs -

We were all hippies back in the day