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Earth Day Facts: When It Is, How It Began, What to Do
John Roach
April 20, 2009
From not-so-humble beginnings in 1970, when 20 million participated across the U.S., Earth Day has grown into a global tradition, with a billion expected to take part in 2009. Find out when it is, how it started, how it's evolved, and what you can do.
When Is Earth Day?
Every day, the saying goes, is Earth Day. But it's popularly celebrated on April 22. Why?
One persistent rumor holds that April 22 was chosen because it's the birthday of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union.
"Lenin's goal was to destroy private property and this goal is obviously shared by environmentalists," the Capitalism Magazine Web site noted in a 2004 article perpetuating the theory.
Kathleen Rogers, president of Washington, D.C.-based Earth Day Network, which was founded by the original organizers of Earth Day, scoffs at the rumored communist connection.
She said April 22, 1970, was chosen for the first Earth Day in part because it fell on a Wednesday, the best part of the week to encourage a large turnout for the environmental rallies held across the country.
"It worked out perfectly, because everybody was at work and they all left," she said.
In fact, more than 20 million people across the U.S. are estimated to have participated in that first Earth Day.
Earth Day is now celebrated every year by more than a billion people in 180 nations around the world, according to Rogers.
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