So today we're going to do something a little different.

While our podcast is about presidents, we love So today we're going to do something a little different.

While our podcast is about presidents, we love all history, so we felt it was appropriate

to highlight one of the most important events in all of history, one made possible by an American

president, that president being John F. Kennedy.

July 20, 2019, marks the 50th anniversary of the very first manned landing on the moon.

It was 1969, the year of Woodstock.

Richard Nixon was in office as president.

The Vietnam War was raging, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was the big hit at the box office.

On July 16th, the crew of Apollo 11, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, known as Buzz,

and Michael Collins lifted off in their massive Saturn 5 rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Four days later, on July 20th, Armstrong and Aldrin separated in their spacecraft

named Eagle from Michael Collins, who remained in the mothership Columbia. They then descended

onto the lunar surface. The landing was quite harrowing as their onboard computer overloaded, and they

found themselves over a rocky patch of lunar surface. Armstrong had to

take manual control of Eagle and landed with seconds left of fuel. Neil and Buzz became the first

human beings to visit another world. A few hours later, with 600 million people watching back home,

Armstrong took the momentous first steps on the moon and uttered those

most famous words. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. After a few

hours on the lunar surface, they took off and rejoined Michael Collins in the command module.

The three men then headed home, re-entered the atmosphere, and splashed down in the South Pacific on July 24th.

This event is one of the most singular accomplishments in all of history, one of those that can truly be considered a civilizational milestone.

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