The original Earth Day was chosen to coincide with the vernal equinox, a day when day and night are of equal length in any part of the world and the sun shines on both the South Pole and the North Pole, representing the equality of the world and symbolizing the need for humanity to set aside its disputes and differences and coexist in harmony. Traditionally, the vernal equinox is celebrated in many countries. In the early days, the United Nations also celebrated World Earth Day on the vernal equinox each year.

In 1969, Senator Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat, held speeches at universities in the United States and planned to organize a campus campaign against the Vietnam War on April 22 of the following year, but at a preparatory meeting in Seattle in 1969, Dennis Hayes, a Harvard Law School student and one of the organizers of the event, proposed to position the campaign as a grassroots movement for environmental protection throughout the United States. The success of this movement led to the annual April 22nd event becoming the norm and Earth Day moving from the equinox to April 22nd in the United States, with the theme of Earth Day becoming more conservation-oriented.

The first Earth Day event in the United States on April 22, 1970 is now widely regarded as the world's first mass environmental movement, which catalyzed the development of the modern human environmental movement, promoted environmental legislation in developed countries, and directly led to the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972. The organizer of the 1970 event, Dennis Hayes, is also known as the father of Earth Day.

As the environmental movement grew worldwide, the organizers of the 20th Earth Day event in 1990 wanted to expand the domestic movement to the world by sending letters to the leaders of China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, calling on them to take steps to meet and conclude multilateral agreements on environmental issues and to work together to reverse environmental degradation. The organizers of Earth Day also called on governments around the world that were willing to commit to environmental protection to mobilize their own national environmental protection campaigns on April 22, 1990. The initiative of the Earth Day organizers was echoed by many countries in Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe and many international organizations, and eventually over 200 million people from more than 140 countries participated in Earth Day on April 22, 1990. Since then, World Earth Day has become a global environmental movement.

When Hayes heard about Gallo Nielsen's proposal in 1969 to hold lectures on environmental issues on college campuses across the country, he envisioned a lecture on environmental issues in Cambridge. So he traveled to the capital, Washington, D.C., to meet with Nielsen. The young Hayes talked about his vision, and Nielsen was overjoyed, immediately offering to hire Hayes and even encouraging him to stop his studies for a while and focus on the environmental movement. So Hayes took the plunge and went through the suspension process. He soon expanded Nielsen's idea to create a large-scale community-based campaign that would take place across the United States. The idea for Earth Day took shape.

He selected Wednesday, April 22, 1970, as the first Earth Day. On April 22 of that year, approximately 20 million people participated in demonstrations and speeches across the United States.

The 1970s were an eventful year in the United States, with the invention of fiber optic fabrics, the failure of the Apollo 13 moon landing program, and a leak at a nuclear plant near the Savannah River in South Carolina, where Americans breathed in lead exhaust from limousines all day long. The plant emitted smoke and sewage without fear of being sued or condemned by public opinion. "Environmentalists" are a rare breed, a word in the dictionary that is rarely taken seriously. It was in this context that the first Earth Day was a great success. Given the public's interest in environmental protection, the U.S. Congress adjourned on Earth Day, with nearly 40 members of the House and Senate speaking at local rallies. A quarter of a million people gathered in Washington, D.C., and 100,000 marched to Fifth Avenue in New York City to support the event.

According to statistics, more than 20 million people, 10,000 schools, 2,000 colleges and universities, 2,000 communities and major groups participated in Earth Day activities across the United States. The first Earth Day event in 1970 was so powerful that it was hailed as the largest social event in the United States since World War II. The event marked the rise of the environmental movement in the United States and prompted the U.S. government to take a number of measures to combat environmental pollution.

The Earth Day event on April 22, 1970, was the first mass environmental protection movement in human history. As the beginning of the modern environmental movement, it led to the establishment of environmental regulations in Western countries. In the United States, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act were introduced; Earth Day 1970 also led to the establishment of the U.S. National Environmental Protection Agency and, to a certain extent, to the convening of the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, which gave a strong impetus to the development of environmental protection in the world. Earth Day played an important role in the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme in 1973, the creation of Greenpeace, an international environmental organization, and the increasing number of government agencies and organizations that protect the environment worldwide. As a result, Earth Day has become a global event.

After the success of the first Earth Day, governmental and private environmental organizations were established in various countries, and Earth Day became a common day for environmental protection in many countries. "Earth Day became the first International Earth Day, with 200 million people in 141 countries and thousands of activities taking place around the world. Participating groups held symposiums, marches, cultural performances, environmental cleanups and other events to promote the spirit of Earth Day and to further pressure governments to pay more attention and develop policies. According to Earth Day International Coordinator Michael McGratham, groups in 140 countries have developed activities related to Earth Day. The event was much larger than the first Earth Day event held 20 years ago, with many countries setting Sunday (April 22, 1990) as the culmination of a week of activities.

On April 22, 1990, hundreds of millions of people around the world wore blue and green to participate in Earth Day. They commemorated the 20th anniversary of Earth Day by picking up waste paper and plastic bags, and banning the dumping of garbage anywhere. The purpose of these activities is to remind people to pay attention to the protection of the global environment and to stop ecological deterioration, so that every resident of the Earth can contribute to the protection and improvement of the global environment. Wearing the blue and green colors is a sign of determination to protect the global environment.

"On Earth Day, about 100 million people in the United States left their cars unattended to prevent emissions and other harmful emissions from cars from being released into the air. In China, Premier Li Peng made a televised speech on the environment on April 21, and CCTV aired a special report on "Only One Earth". Since then, Earth Day has been celebrated every year in China.

In late February 2000, Hayes accepted China's invitation to participate in the launch of China's Earth Day 2000 China Initiative.

In the late 1990s, Gaylord Nelson and Bruce Anderson (solar architect, author, and organizer of Earth Day in New Hampshire) co-founded Earth Day USA to make it an annual, high-caliber event. "Earth Day USA. "The Earth Day website was launched in 1995.

In 1999, Earth Day USA was renamed the Earth Day Network and became a worldwide organization that promotes international Earth Day activities each year. Earth Day 2000 was again led by Gaylord Nelson and Dennis Hayes, with the difference that this time they built on Earth Day 1970 by adding a global public campaign and taking full advantage of the new information technology of the Internet to bring the wisdom and enthusiasm of people from all over the world to Earth Day. This time, they built on the 1970 Earth Day by adding a global public campaign and taking advantage of the new information technology of the Internet to bring together the wisdom and enthusiasm of people from all countries. Thanks to the efforts of Gallo Nielsen, Dennis Hayes and their comrades, Earth Day has become a truly global holiday, reminding people to protect the Earth and to be kind to it.

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