A few members of the WorldChanging team have "Whole Earth" connections, referring to Point Foundation/Whole Earth Catalog/Coevolution Quarterly/Whole Earth Magazine . "Whole Earth" was eclectic and complex, but the Whole Earth concept and label was influenced by our first views of the earth from space, and the first human to see the earth from space was Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who said "Circling the Earth in the orbital spaceship I marvelled at the beauty of our planet. People of the world! Let us safeguard and enhance this beauty – not destroy it!" April 12 is the anniversary of Gagarin's flight, and in honor of that paradigm-shattering event, Loretta Hidalgo, George Whitesides, and Trish Garner have created an event called Yuri's Night, which consists of global parties on April 12 celebrating the anniversary of Gagarin's flight. The Yuri's night web site includes a history of Gagarin's flight and of the Yuri's night events, which began in 2002.
(Thanks to John Beach for the pointer.)