What Apollo 8 told the Earth 50 years ago today.

This is Jim Denison's daily article for Monday, December 24th, 2018.

On Christmas Eve in 1968, as the astronauts of Apollo 8 circled the moon, they broadcast a message back to Earth.

They were told that they would have the largest audience that had ever heard a human voice.

What would they choose to say? Here's the actual broadcast.

Lunar module pilot William Anders begins the message. Then you will hear from command module pilot Jim Lavel.

Then Commander Frank Borman ends their Christmas Eve broadcast.

For all the people back on Earth, they prove Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the water.

And God said, let there be light, and there was light.

And God saw the light.

That it was good.

And God divided the light from the darkness.

Thank you. And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the late day.

In the darkness he called night.

And the evening and the morning was the first day.

And God said, let there be a fronement in the midst of the waters. And let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament.

And divided the waters which were under the firmament, the waters which were above the firmament.

And it was so.

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