MNN - Mother Nature Network

July 17, 1955: The rural town of Arco, Idaho, becomes the world's first community powered by nuclear-generated electricity. An experimental reactor at the nearby National Reactor Testing Station (NRTS) powers the town for about one hour.

 

July 17, 1986: The LTV Corporation files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. LTV had begun as a small, Texas-based electronics firm, but through acquisitions, it grew to be the third largest steel manufacturer in the United States. Left behind in the wreckage of LTV's $4 billion debt are multiple Superfund cleanup sites, and former LTV employees whose retirement funds had been raided to try to save the company.

 

July 17, 2009: Wal-mart Stores, long a villain for environmentalists and labor activists, makes a major statement for sustainability in the products it sells in its 8,600 worldwide stores.

 

Photo: Walmart Stores/Flickr

 

This feature is compiled by Peter Dykstra, an MNN contributor and publisher of Environmental Health News and The Daily Climate.