Earth Day is held annually in spring to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth's environment.  Earth Day is now observed each year by more than 500 million people and national governments in 175 countries. 

The story goes that Earth Day was conceived by Senator Gaylord Nelson after a trip he took to Santa Barbara right after that horrific oil spill off our coast in 1969. He was so outraged by what he saw that he went back to Washington and passed a bill designating April 22 as a national day to celebrate the earth.