CalendarZ

  1. Home
  2. On This Day
  3. November
  4. 3
  5. Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge

Events on November 3 in history

Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge
1960Nov, 3

The land that would become the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was established by an Act of Congress after a year-long legal battle that pitted local residents against Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials wishing to turn the Great Swamp into a major regional airport for jet aircraft.

The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge is located in Morris County, New Jersey. Established in 1960, as the first federal wilderness area, it now is among what has grown to be more than 550 refuges in the United States National Wildlife Refuge System.

The initial portion of the Great Swamp that was assembled and donated for perpetual preservation by the park service of the federal government was declared a National Natural Landmark in May 1966. It has grown several times with the assemblage of additional lands. Its eastern half was designated as a wilderness by Congress in 1968, making it the first wilderness area within the U. S. Department of the Interior.

References

Choose Another Date

Events on 1960

  • 17Mar

    Bay of Pigs Invasion

    U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action program that will ultimately lead to the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
  • 21Apr

    Rio de Janeiro

    Brasília, Brazil's capital, is officially inaugurated. At 09:30, the Three Powers of the Republic are simultaneously transferred from the old capital, Rio de Janeiro.
  • 9May

    Combined oral contraceptive pill

    The Food and Drug Administration announces it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid, making Enovid the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill.
  • 4Jul

    Flag of the United States

    Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Act).
  • 29Oct

    Muhammad Ali

    In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (who later takes the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.