Happy Earth Day to you, or you can use another name

The 22nd of April in 1970 was a big day for ecological awareness in the U.S.  Walter Cronkite did a special report on CBS that night, talking about the very first “Earth Day” observed in America.   La Crosse Mayor Warren Loveland issued an “Environmental Day” proclamation, in which he said the nation must find adequate and feasible solutions to overpopulation, and air and water pollution.   

Federal appeals judge Harry Blackmun, from Rochester, was nominated by President Nixon to fill a Supreme Court vacancy.  Blackmun said he had been called both liberal and conservative.  Blackmun is best remembered today for writing the majority opinion in the ‘Roe vs. Wade’ decision on abortion.  

The Apollo 13 mission launched that week. The third planned trip to land men on the moon nearly became a disaster, when an explosion occurred on the spacecraft while still traveling toward the moon. Commander Jim Lovell and his crew worked with Mission Control to get the spacecraft to circle around the moon and return safely to Earth.

Singer Paul Simon went on “The Dick Cavett Show” that April to promote his new album with Art Garfunkel, “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”  Simon and Garfunkel split up just after recording the album, and Cavett asked Simon about why other acts, like the Beatles, weren’t performing in public any more.  The day after that Cavett episode was broadcast, Paul McCartney officially announced that he was leaving the Beatles.  Big breakups in 1970, yesterday in La Crosse.