Friday, July 24, 2009

40 Years Ago...one GIANT leap for mankind...

Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin ~ Apollo 11, 1969

How did I miss writing about the biggest history making story...just 40 years ago?? I remember it like it was yesterday - I was 12 years old. It was all people talked about. It was also the last big event my father was alive to witness, he died 6 months later at a tender young age of 42. I'm happy he took this memory to his grave. I vividly remember my parents realizing the significance of what was about to happen 250,000 miles away and that they let us stay up as we all watched this from our "then" grainy black and white TV.

Headline News... The NYT cost 10 cents in 1969
The mission fulfilled President Kennedy's goal of reaching the moon by the end of the 1960s, which he had expressed during a speech given in 1961 - how tragic he never lived to see this. Another tragedy is that America which was known for making great things happen, no matter how great the challenge has since lagged behind the rest of the world in science, math and technology. How did we let that happen?

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