However, Arbor Day and Earth Day wouldn’t share April 22nd for long. The Earth Day event was such a success, even among political leaders, that it led to a flurry of environmentally-friendly actions. One of those actions was the recognition of Arbor Day as a national holiday by President Richard M. Nixon. It was then that Arbor Day was uprooted from Morton’s birthday and moved to the last Friday in April. It isn’t exactly known why this was done, but Earth Day’s overnight success may have had something to do with it.
