Popular Nostalgia

On the 21st of July 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. He walked into the Sea of Tranquility at 0256 GMT and reported back with the words: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” He had earlier set up cameras to capture the first steps and said: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

He described the surface as being like powdered charcoal and the landing craft left a crater about a foot deep. Buzz Aldrin and he collected soil samples and jumped across the surface before planting the Stars and Stripes flag at 0315 GMT.

In addition to one million people crowding the highways and beaches near the launch site, an estimated audience of over 700 million people viewed the event on television. President Richard Nixon viewed the proceedings from the Oval Office of the White House and later spoke to the astronauts in what he termed “the most historic telephone call of our time”.