There is not a person on this planet who was alive on the night of July 16, 1969 who doesn't know where he or she was on that warm,anxious summer evening at 13:32:00 UTC.
While some small percentage of the global populace had their eyes on the skies, most of us were focused on a television screen.
My family gathered around a 24 inch Admiral, B&W console model in our living room. We ate pizza and drank Coca Cola, as the NBC News troika of space coverage, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley and Frank McGee, calmly and clearly explained the wondrous story that was unfolding some 238,857 miles away on the moon.
They offered an occasional wry and prosaic aside about the electrifying adventure at hand, and the almost unfathomable scale of the historic event that we would soon witness.
We were hoping for a moment of celebration, in a time of anger and violence, marked by social upheaval in the streets.
And then it happened:
Every person on Earth with access to a television could see the same fuzzy, monochrome image, captured on a barren rock in the sky that was as old as human memory, and sent home by the most amazing television technology that mid-twentieth century engineers could devise.
The world watched as Astronaut Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon.
Television took us along for the incredible ride.
As he climbed down the ladder the APOLLO 11 Lunar Module,he uttered the simple, but enduring phrase, "THIS IS ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN AND A GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND."
Those words have resonated with every person who dreams of traveling to the stars, ever since.
Today, Neil Armstrong passed away of complications from recent heart surgery.
He was 82 years old, a devoted Family man, a respected educator , an accomplished engineer, and ,perhaps, the last , true American hero.
There are no reports of embarrassing escapades. No scandals.No reason to place an asterisk next to his name in the history books that record his extraordinary accomplishments.
Armstrong , it is reported, always was uncomfortable with fame. It is said that he never used his celebrity to enhance his own personal wealth or social standing.
He declined the spotlight, but , it seems, that moon glow just doesn't fade.
Here from HULU, Metacafe and NBC News is the story of Apollo 11's amazing journey to the Moon.
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