Appendix I: Significant Dates in American Environmental History 291
Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation in the Western
Hemisphere.
1942 DDT introduced into United States.
1944 Soil Conservation Society of America founded.
1945 United States drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
1946 Federal Lands Management Act establishes U.S. Bureau of Land Management to
consolidate administration of lands in the public domain.
International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling; amended 1956.
Atomic Energy Commission established.
1947 Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) attempts to protect
consumers from fraudulent pesticide products; amended in 1972 to give greater
focus to monitoring health and environmental consequences of pesticides.
Conservation Foundation organized.
Defenders of Wildlife organized.
Las Angeles Air Pollution Control District created. First air pollution agency in
the United States.
1948 Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPA) authorizes Public Health Service to
aid states in developing water pollution control programs and planning sewage
treatment plants; amended 1972.
Heavy smog in Domorra, Pennsylvania, causes 20 deaths.
1949 First Sierra Club Biennial Wilderness Conference held.
National Trust for Historic Preservation chartered by congress.
Aldo Leopold publishes A Sand County Almanac.
1950 New Mexican grizzly bear becomes extinct.
1951 Nature Conservancy established.
1952 President’s (Truman’s) Materials Policy Commission issues report.
1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (Submerged Lands Act) asserts that the fed-
eral government has authority over the development of mineral resources in the
outer continental shelf; amended 1990.
1954 International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil;
amended 1969.
1955 Federal Clean Air Act (FCAA) (Air Pollution Control Act) provides aid for state
and local air quality control and research programs; amended 1963, 1965, 1970,
1977, 1990.
Resources for the Future formed to study U.S. resource use.