July 19, 2025.

On July 20, 1969, U.S. astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped from Lunar Module Eagle to the surface of the moon.

125 million Americans, 63% of the population,

were watching on live television as Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin

became the first humans to walk on the moon.

Television showed Armstrong stepping out of the lunar module onto the moon just before 11 o'clock

p.m. Eastern time. My siblings and I were among those watching. Our parents had taken us

across the harbor to our aunt and uncle's house where there was a TV. I remember being groggy

from being rousted out of bed and unimpressed by the fuzzy little black and white screen the adults were crowded around and kept trying to get us to look at.

At six, I had no idea that it was an unusual thing for people to walk on the moon, and was much more impressed that my aunt had a big fishing net with colorful glass weights in it, hanging as a decoration near her fieldstone fireplace.

My older sister says that unlike me, she was indeed impressed that night,

but not with the moon landing.

Our older cousin Jeff was playing an album by the doors,

and she says she remembers being blown away, both by their music,

which she was hearing for the first time,

and by the weighty realization that we had the coolest cousin in the world.

Clearly it was a night to remember, even if we didn't quite understand why.

And at a time in which our elected leaders are deliberately breaking our government and institutions,

it seems worthwhile to look back at a time when the U.S. government put its power behind

enabling the American people to achieve something epic, leading a scientific triumph for people around the world.

So here is the story of Apollo 11.

On July 20th, 1969,

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