1875 | Environment
Environment
Arbor Day April 22 encourages Americans to plant trees on the open prairie. Nebraska agriculturist J. Sterling Morton, 43, has dreamed up the idea and within 12 years 40 states will have made April 22 an official Arbor Day (see Poetry [Kilmer], 1913).
Earthquakes in Colombia and Venezuela May 16 take 16,000 lives.
Buffalo (bison) herds on the Western plains diminish drastically as market hunters kill the animals for their hides and continue to decimate what has for thousands of years been the major source of food, fuel, and clothing for the Plains Indians, whose various tribes have participated in the killing (see 1870). President Grant vetoes a bill that would protect the bison from extinction (see 1879).