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Earth Day was celebrated for the first time on April 22, 1970, after the Santa Barbara oil spill incident.

Today the world is celebrating Earth Day, but behind the beginning of this day to preserve the environment, there is a tragedy which took the lives of millions of marine creatures. Polluted the sea and gave birth to a bad phase. That incident happened in the year 1969. The reason for the beginning of Earth Day is given to the Santa Barbara oil spill incident. The largest oil spill occurred near the city of Santa Barbara in Southern California.

The accident occurred in January 1969 when an oil company was extracting oil from the bottom of the sea on an offshore drilling platform, but due to technical negligence during drilling, the pressure on the sea surface became unbalanced and cracks formed in the bottom. Crude oil started flowing into the sea from the cracks. The flow was such that it was impossible to control.

oil tragedy

It was told that the oil leakage was so much that about 11 million liters of oil flowed into the sea. Due to the leakage, a thick layer was formed on the sea. Millions of sea birds, fish and other creatures died. The beach was covered with a sheet of black oil. The tourism sector was badly affected. The fishing business collapsed.

Sea bird died due to oil leak. Photo: Getty Images

The pictures of the oil tragedy published in the newspapers disturbed the people. Pictures of dead birds disturbed people. It strengthened me to think about how an oil spill in the sea can destroy so much in one go.

This incident created concern about the environment in the minds of people. People who raised their voice for the environment questioned the government and expressed their views. As a result, the government and activist groups together came up with a plan to find a solution.

Cleanliness campaign started, law was made

First of all, a large scale clean-up campaign was launched to clean the oil. Strict laws were made in America for environmental protection. As a result of this, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in 1970, whose objective was to protect the environment.

Earth Day was founded

The biggest impact has been that this incident made the general public aware and gave impetus to the environmental movement. Due to this awareness, Earth Day was celebrated for the first time on 22 April 1970.

Lakhs of people participated in supporting environmental protection to celebrate Earth Day. In this way, the Santa Barbara oil spill was certainly a tragic incident, but it taught the whole world how important it is to protect nature and from here a big initiative for environmental protection started at the global level.

Ankit Gupta

Born in Lucknow, the city of Nawabs. Graduated from DAV College and MBA from Punjab Technical University. The desire to write and the passion to know the story beyond the news brought me into journalism. Started his career in 2008 with Lucknow's first Hindi tabloid 'Lucknow Lead'.

Tried my hand in the features section. Then he joined Dainik Jagran's iNext from Gorakhpur, the city of Baba Gorakhnath. Joined the Jaipur head office of Rajasthan Patrika in 2013 for reporting on city news and health magazine. After spending about 5 years here, I reached Dainik Bhaskar's Bhopal head office in 2018 for a new start in the digital world. Got hold on research, explainer, data story and infographic. The most complex news of health and science explained in simple words. In 2021, after saying goodbye to Dainik Bhaskar, I joined the digital wing of TV9 Group. Currently, while working in TV9, I am heading the 'Knowledge' section as an Assistant News Editor. There is a focus and interest on explainer, data and research stories. Read More