The mission's commander was Lieutenant Junior Grade Neil Alden Armstrong, U.S. Navy, from Wapakoneta, in western Ohio, about halfway between Toledo and Dayton. In contact with Mission Control, in Houston, Texas, he spoke the 1st words any human had spoken from the surface of the Moon: "Houston, Tranquility Base here: The Eagle has landed."
With him, aboard Eagle, was the craft's pilot, Colonel Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr., U.S. Air Force, known as Buzz, of the New York suburb of Montclair, Essex County, New Jersey. Orbiting the Moon above them, in the command module Columbia, was Colonel Michael Collins, U.S. Air Force, who grew up in many places around the world, as his father was a high-ranking U.S. Army officer.
All 3 men reached their 39th birthdays during the course of calendar year 1969, and each was taking part in his 2nd spaceflight.
At 10:56 PM, Armstrong stepped down the ladder on the side of Eagle, and put his left foot down on the surface of the Moon. He chose his 1st words very carefully, knowing that the whole world would remember them: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
Except, between his Midwestern accent and the transmission of the words from the Moon to Houston, from Houston to the TV networks in New York, and from the networks in New York to the world, it sounded like he said, "One small step for man..." Which made no sense, as "man" and "mankind" were usually interchangeable.
It didn't matter. A man was standing on the Moon, and he was an American. Buzz Aldrin followed Armstrong a few minutes later. Four days later, they returned to Earth, and got a ticker-tape parade in New York City.
Every Summer, my grandparents rented a bungalow at South Seaside Park, on the Jersey Shore. This was that weekend for 1969. They, and my parents, watched the Moon landing at The Sand Bar. Not yet born, I tell people I had "an obstructed view." The bar is still there, and is now Chef Mike's Atlantic Bar & Grill, or "The ABG." It is 84 road miles south of Midtown Manhattan.
None of them ever went into space again. None had to.
Collins would be appointed an Assistant Secretary of State, and serve as the director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., where Columbia is on display. He is scheduled to turn 89 in October.
Aldrin battled clinical depression and alcoholism, recovered, and has become an advocate for recovery and for the space program. He is 89.
Armstrong was, for a time, the most famous man in the world, more so than the President, the Pope, or any athlete. He could have used his fame to make gobs of money. Basically a private person, he chose not to. He taught at the University of Cincinnati, and served on the commissions that investigated the near-disaster of Apollo 13 in 1970 and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.
In 1985, he was part of an expedition to the North Pole, led by a man who wanted to bring "the world's greatest explorers" together. Also on the expedition was Sir Edmund Hillary, the New Zealander who became the 1st man to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, Mount Everest in Nepal, in 1953.
This would have been Hillary's 100th birthday, so the Moon landing was on his 50th.
Armstrong lived and worked on a farm near his Ohio hometown, and died of long-term heart trouble on August 25, 2012, at age 82.
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Landing on the Moon. Reaching the highest mountain. Running a mile in under 4 minutes, as Roger Bannister became the 1st man to do in 1954. Flying between the mainlands of North America and Europe, as Charles Lindbergh became the 1st man to do in 1927. These were huge events. Big deals were made of them at the time.
I was born at the end of 1969, 5 months after this epochal event. My generation -- even people 4 or 5 years older than I am -- can't remember a time when there had never been a man on the Moon.
Of course, most of us can't remember there being a man on the Moon, as Apollo 17 left on December 14, 1972, and there hasn't been a manned Moon landing since, launched by any nation.
Fifty years. How long has that been?
On July 20, 1969, the Yankees defeated the Washington Senators 3-2 in 11 innings, at the old Yankee Stadium. No home runs were hit. The winning pitcher, in relief, was Jack Aker. Today, at the new Yankee Stadium, Aker was on hand, and caught the ceremonial first ball from a current astronaut, Mike Massimino.
Elsewhere in the American League: The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-5 at Fenway Park. The Detroit Tigers split a doubleheader with the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, the Tigers winning the 1st game 3-2, and the Tribe winning the 2nd game 5-4 in 10 innings. The Kansas City Royals swept a doubleheader with the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park, winning the 1st game 8-6, and the 2nd game 3-2 in 11 innings. The California Angels split a doubleheader with the Oakland Athletics at Anaheim Stadium: The Halos won the opener 7-3, and the A's won the nightcap 9-6. And the Minnesota Twins beat the Seattle Pilots 4-0 at Sick's Stadium.
While this great moment was occurring for all humanity, but mainly for America, the Mets weren't even in America. They split a doubleheader with the Montreal Expos at Jarry Park. They lost the 1st game 3-2, with Gary Gentry giving up 3 solo home runs; and won the 2nd game 4-3, as Ron Swoboda backed Don Cardwell up with 3 hits, including an RBI double.
Elsewhere in the National League, the Chicago Cubs swept a doubleheader from the Philadelphia Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium, 1-0 and 6-1. The Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres 10-0 at Atlanta (-Fulton County) Stadium. And the San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-3 at Candlestick Park. The Cincinnati Reds, the Houston Astros, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals got rained out. Why so many doubleheaders? It was a Sunday.
An urban legend says that, when he was rookie with the Giants in 1962, pitcher Gaylord Perry hit a home run in batting practice, and was told there would be a man on the Moon before he hit one in a real game, and that the landing was announced at Candlestick at around 8:00 Pacific Time, and then he hit a home run. The truth? We may never know if Perry was actually told that, but, that day, Perry did pitch, win, and hit a home run, but it was a day game.
Of the 24 Major League Baseball teams then playing, all but one, the Chicago Cubs, was playing their home games in stadiums with permanent lights. Only one, the Houston Astros, was playing on an artificial turf field, and only the Astros were playing under a dome (retractable or otherwise). There was no designated hitter, and no regular season interleague play.
Of the 24 ballparks used by MLB teams that year, only 5 are still in use by the teams then using them: Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley Field in Chicago, Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium in the Los Angeles area, and the Oakland Coliseum. The Astrodome in Houston and Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington are no longer in use, but still stand.
There were 16 teams in the NFL and 10 in the AFL, and they were in the process of merging. Of those 26 teams, the only ones in the same stadiums they were in for the 1969 season are the Oakland Raiders (who left Oakland and returned), the Los Angeles Rams (who left Los Angeles and returned, and will leave the Coliseum a 2nd time next year, for a new stadium) and the Green Bay Packers (Lambeau Field).
From the NBA and the NHL combined, 1 one arena remains from the 1969-70 season that was about to begin: Madison Square Garden in New York, then billed as "the New Madison Square Garden Center," but now older than the "Old Garden" that it replaced. The Brooklyn Nets were known as the New York Nets, and were playing home games at the 5,200-seat Island Garden in Hempstead. It was demolished in 1973. The New York Islanders and the New Jersey Devils did not yet exist.
What were the defining baseball players of my childhood doing in July 1969? Reggie Jackson was in the middle of his 2nd full season, in which he hit 47 home runs. Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk were about to make their big-league debuts. Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan were helping the Mets to their Miracle – but, 20 days later, after it was completed, if you had bet then that neither one would ever win another World Championship, people would have laughed at you. (Of course, they also would have laughed if you had then bet that Ryan would win more games in the majors than Seaver.)
There were 16 teams in the NFL and 10 in the AFL, and they were in the process of merging. Of those 26 teams, the only ones in the same stadiums they were in for the 1969 season are the Oakland Raiders (who left Oakland and returned), the Los Angeles Rams (who left Los Angeles and returned, and will leave the Coliseum a 2nd time next year, for a new stadium) and the Green Bay Packers (Lambeau Field).
From the NBA and the NHL combined, 1 one arena remains from the 1969-70 season that was about to begin: Madison Square Garden in New York, then billed as "the New Madison Square Garden Center," but now older than the "Old Garden" that it replaced. The Brooklyn Nets were known as the New York Nets, and were playing home games at the 5,200-seat Island Garden in Hempstead. It was demolished in 1973. The New York Islanders and the New Jersey Devils did not yet exist.
What were the defining baseball players of my childhood doing in July 1969? Reggie Jackson was in the middle of his 2nd full season, in which he hit 47 home runs. Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk were about to make their big-league debuts. Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan were helping the Mets to their Miracle – but, 20 days later, after it was completed, if you had bet then that neither one would ever win another World Championship, people would have laughed at you. (Of course, they also would have laughed if you had then bet that Ryan would win more games in the majors than Seaver.)
Pete Rose won his 2nd straight NL batting title, and his Cincinnati Reds teammate Johnny Bench had a pretty good season, but they hadn't yet won their 1st Pennant -- that would come the next season. Rod Carew was forging his 1st AL batting title, and there would be 6 more. Carl Yastrzemski hit 40 home runs and drove in 111 runs, but his Red Sox had already changed significantly from their "Impossible Dream" Pennant team of 2 years earlier. Steve Carlton was about to set a new NL record with 19 strikeouts -- but would still lose the game to the Mets. Willie Stargell had recently become the 1st player to hit a home run completely out of Dodger Stadium. Four years later, he would do it again.
Mike Schmidt was still playing at Ohio University (not to be confused with The… Ohio State University), and had yet to face a professional pitch. George Brett was still at El Segundo High School in Los Angeles County.
The current managers and head coaches of New York Tri-State Area teams? Barry Trotz of the Islanders and Domènec Torrent of NYCFC were 7 years old, Pat Shurmur of the Giants was 4, David Quinn of the Rangers was 3, Kenny Atkinson of the Nets was 2, and the rest weren't born yet: Chris Armas of the Red Bulls was born in 1972, Aaron Boone of the Yankees in 1973, David Fizdale of the Knicks and Katie Smith of the Liberty in 1974, Mickey Callaway of the Mets John Hynes of the Devils in 1975, and Adam Gase of the Jets in 1978.
The defending World Champions in the 4 major sports were the Detroit Tigers in baseball, the New York Jets (believe it) in football, the Boston Celtics in basketball and the Montreal Canadiens in hockey.
There was no official Heavyweight Champion of the World, as Muhammad Ali had been stripped of the title for refusing to be drafted, an unconstitutional measure that would take until October 30, 1974 to be fully rectified. Joe Frazier and Jimmy Ellis would soon fight in a "unification" bout to decide who was the official champion.
The Olympic Games have since been held in America 4 times, Canada 3 times, Japan twice, Russia twice, Korea twice, and once each in Germany, Austria, Bosnia, France, Spain, Norway, Australia, Greece, Italy, China, Britain and Brazil. The World Cup has since been held in Mexico and Germany twice each, and once each in America, Argentina, Spain, Italy, France, Japan, Korea, South Africa, Brazil and Russia.
There were then 25 Amendments to the Constitution. There was, as yet, no Environmental Protection Agency, OSHA, Title IX or legalized abortion. The Stonewall Riot had happened just a few weeks before. The last Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1969 to still be on it was former football star Byron "Whizzer" White, in 1993. They are all dead now.
Richard Nixon was President of the United States. Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson were still alive. So was the widow of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had died earlier in the year. Gerald Ford was the Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Jimmy Carter was a former State Senator in Georgia, about to run his second, much more successful, campaign for Governor. Ronald Reagan was in his first term as Governor of California.
George Herbert Walker Bush was a Congressman from Texas, and his son George had entered the Texas Air National Guard. Apparently, it was okay for him and his father to support the Vietnam War even if he didn't have to actually fight in it.
Bill Clinton was at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, and Hillary Rodham was about to be named valedictorian at Wellesley College. Al Gore was in the U.S. Army in Vietnam, while Dan Quayle was in the Indiana National Guard. Guess which one supported the war, and which one didn't.
Joe Biden was about to be admitted to the Delaware bar, and was too old to be drafted. Mitt Romney had just gotten married, and had gotten a draft deferment as a Mormon missionary. His father, George Romney, was President Nixon's Secretary of Housing & Urban Development.
Dick Cheney and Newt Gingrich both had teaching deferments. Rudy Giuliani got a deferment as a law clerk. John McCain did not have a deferment, and the Navy pilot was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Mitch McConnell enlisted in the U.S. Army, and John Boehner enlisted in the U.S. Navy, but each later discharged for medical reasons. Barack Obama was not subject to the draft, being just 8 years old. Donald Trump claimed bone spurs.
The Governor of New York was Nelson Rockefeller, having made 3 unsuccessful runs for President. The Mayor of New York City was John Lindsay, who had just been denied renomination by the City’s Republican Party because of his poor handling of snow removal during the blizzard earlier in the year. But he would win a 2nd term as a 3rd-party nominee.
The Governor of New Jersey was Richard J. Hughes, about to wrap up his second term. Former Governor Robert B. Meyner would try to get the office back, but would fail, losing to South Jersey Congressman William T. Cahill.
Nancy Pelosi was about to move to San Francisco, where her brother-in-law was on the Board of Supervisors. Andrew Cuomo and Phil Murphy were 11 years old, and Bill de Blasio was 8.
There were still living veterans of America's Indian Wars, the Mahdist War, the Boer War and the Spanish-American War. There were still living survivors of the Johnstown Flood of 1889, the competitors of the 1st modern Olympics of 1896, and the players of the 1st World Series of 1903.
The Pope was Paul VI. Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis, was about to be ordained as a priest. Canada's Prime Minister was Pierre Trudeau. He was young (50), dashing and charismatic. It was as if John F. Kennedy was singing lead for the Beatles -- in French. Canada had just gotten the Expos, their 1st Major League Baseball team. And a group called The Guess Who had just become Canada’s biggest rock band ever (to that point). For the first time ever, Canada was hip. Especially if you were an American worrying about being drafted.
Elizabeth II was Queen of England -- that still hasn't changed -- but she was just 43 years old. Britain's Prime Minister was Harold Wilson. There have since been 9 Presidents of the United States, 9 Prime Ministers of Britain (soon, there will be a 10th), and 4 Popes.
The English Football League had just been won by Leeds United, and the FA Cup was won by Manchester City, the defending League Champions, beating Leicester City 1-0 on a goal by Neil Young – no, not that Neil Young. AC Milan, led by perhaps Italy's greatest player ever, Gianni Rivera, won their 2nd European Cup by beating Ajax Amsterdam, led by 21-year-old wunderkind Johan Cruijff. Ajax and their "Total Football" would be back, big-time.
Major novels of 1969 included The Godfather by Mario Puzo, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton, The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles, Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth, Rich Man, Poor Man by Irwin Shaw, and The Seven Minutes by Irving Wallace (about a novel, of the same title, that was "the most banned book in history," containing a woman's thoughts during 7 minutes of sex).
Also published that year was Naked Came the Stranger by Peneleope Ashe. This was a name used for a composite of 24 authors, conspiring to see if a novel could be really, really bad, but still sell big if it had a lot of sex scenes in it. This was a truly late-Sixties kind of experiment – and, for better or for worse, it worked.
Major non-fiction books included the career-launching memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, and the career-launching historical work Mary, Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser.
J.R.R. Tolkein was still alive. So was Jack Kerouac, but he died 3 months later as a result of his excessive drinking. Stephen King was at the University of Maine, George R.R. Martin was at Northwestern University, and J.K. Rowling was 4 years old. No one had yet heard of John Rambo, Spenser: For Hire, George Smiley, The Punisher, Rocky Balboa, T.S. Garp, Arthur Dent, Jason Bourne, Hannibal Lecter, Celie Harris, Kinsey Millhone, Jack Ryan, Forrest Gump, John McClane, Alex Cross, Bridget Jones, Robert Langdon, Bella Swan, Lisbeth Salander or Katniss Everdeen.
Major films of the Summer of '69 included the Westerns True Grit and The Wild Bunch, Easy Rider, Woody Allen's directorial debut Take the Money and Run, and a film that told the story of Arlo Guthrie's song Alice's Restaurant. And Charlton Heston played an aging quarterback in the film Number One.
James Bond was about to be played by George Lazenby for the 1st and only time, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Adam West's TV version of Batman had recently been canceled. Bob Holiday, in the 1966 Broadway musical It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman, was the most recent live-action Man of Steel. The Doctor Who franchise was in the process of regenerating from Patrick Troughton to Jon Pertwee. Michael Douglas (in his 2nd movie) and Peter Strauss (in his 1st) were about to premiere in Hail, Hero! Douglas' future wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, was about to be born.
Star Trek had recently been canceled, and Gene Roddenberry had moved on to directing a sexploitation film, Pretty Maids All In a Row. George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola had co-founded the film studio American Zoetrope, but Lucas had not yet directed a feature-length film. Nor had Steven Spielberg.
Television shows that debuted in the 1969-70 season that was about to begin included Room 222, Marcus Welby, M.D., Medical Center, The Brady Bunch, and kids' shows Sesame Street, H.R. Pufnstuf and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? From Britain came the debuts of Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Benny Hill Show. Robert Kardashian was in law school, Bruce Jenner was playing college football in Iowa, Kristen Mary Houghton was about to turn 14, and none of them knew each other yet.
No one had yet heard of Carol Brady, Mary Richards, Keith Partridge, Archie Bunker, Kwai Chang Caine, Fred Sanford, Bob Hartley, Theo Kojak, Arthur Fonzarelli, Barney Miller, J.R. Ewing, Mork from Ork, William Adama, Arnold Jackson, Ken Reeves, Bo & Luke Duke, Mario & Luigi, Sam Malone, Christine Cagney & Mary Beth Lacey, He-Man, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Thundercats, Bart Simpson, Zack Morris, Hayden Fox, Dale Cooper, The Seinfeld Four, Buffy Summers, Fox Mulder & Dana Scully, Andy Sipowicz, Ross Geller & Rachel Greene, Doug Ross, Xena, Ash Kethcum, Carrie Bradshaw, Tony Soprano, Olivia Benson, Jed Bartlet, Master Chief, Jack Bauer, Omar Little, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Michael Bluth, Michael Scott, Don Draper, Walter White, Jax Teller, Richard Castle, Leslie Knope, Sarah Manning, Jane "Eleven" Hopper or Maggie Bell.
The Number 1 song in America was "In the Year 2525" by Denny Zager & Rick Evans -- but it wasn't projecting a hopeful future. Brian Jones was fired from the Rolling Stones, and died just 2 days before the band's concert in London's Hyde Park. It went forward anyway, and 500,000 people attended. Another 500,000 attended the Woodstock Music and Art Festival on a dairy farm in the Catskill Mountains in Bethel, New York.
Frank Sinatra released "My Way." Elvis Presley was about to begin his live-in performances -- what would now be called a residency -- in Las Vegas. The Beatles were recording Abbey Road, and took the famous crosswalk picture on August 8. Bob Dylan had just released Nashville Skyline. Johnny Cash had just debuted his variety show, and Dylan was his 1st guest.
Michael Jackson and his brothers were about to make their national debut as the Jackson 5. He was 11 years old. So was Madonna, but she wouldn't have a hit for another 13 years. Billy Joel's 1st band, The Hassles, had just released its 2nd album, but was about to break up. Bruce Springsteen had just formed a band named Child, which would become Steel Mill, and would evolve into The E Street Band. Elton John was about to release his 1st album. David Bowie had released "Space Oddity," but had yet to suggest the legend he was to become. And Bryan Adams, who famously had a hit with a song titled "Summer of '69," was 9 years old.
Inflation was such that what $1.00 bought then, $6.96 would buy now. A U.S. postage stamp cost 6 cents, and a New York Subway ride 20 cents. The average price of a gallon of gas was 35 cents, a cup of coffee 42 cents, a McDonald's meal 79 cents (49 cents of that being the recently-introduced Big Mac, plus fries and a shake), a movie ticket $1.20, a new car around $2,300, and a new house $28,100. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the preceding Friday at 845.92.
The tallest building in the world was the Empire State Building in New York. Credit cards were still a relatively new thing, and there were no automatic teller machines in America. Nor were there personal computers or home video games. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Tim Berners-Lee were all 14 years old. There were heart transplants, liver transplants, lung transplants, kidney transplants and artificial kidneys, but no artificial hearts. There were birth control pills, but no Viagra.
In the Summer of 1969, in addition to the preceding, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne makes a mistake in joint maneuvers with the U.S. Navy, and crashes into the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans, killing 74 men. Fighting known as the Battle of the Bogside broke out in Northern Ireland. Britain removed the halfpenny coin from circulation. The Canadian Parliament made French equal to English throughout the nation. Honduras and neighboring El Salvador fought a 4-day war, sparked by a soccer game between their national teams. And President Richard Nixon made the 1st reduction in U.S. troops in Vietnam, giving the nation hope that he might actually keep his promise to end the war there. That hope wouldn't last.
In America, Warren Burger was sworn in to replace the retiring Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Hurricane Camille killed 248 people along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. A militant faction of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) broke away, and renamed themselves the Weathermen, after a line in the Dylan song "Subterranean Homesick Blues": "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." The Cuyahoga River, in downtown Cleveland, caught fire due to decades of pollution, helping to spur the creation of the EPA. The fish-based fast food chain Long John Silver's and the clothing chain The Gap opened their 1st stores.
Senator Ted Kennedy took a wrong turn driving a woman home from a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, and she died. His failure to report the accident for several hours damaged his reputation, and probably prevented him from ever becoming President. Members of a cult led by Charles Manson killed several people in Los Angeles, including actress Sharon Tate. And former Heavyweight Champion of the World Rocky Marciano was killed in a plane crash in Iowa.
Frank Loesser, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Bill Carrigan, who managed the Boston Red Sox to win the 1915 and 1916 World Series, died. Jennifer Lopez, and Troy Percival, and Joe Sakic were born.
July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong becomes the 1st Earth person to walk on Earth's Moon. Never again would we be able to say no one had done it.
Of course, we've spent the last 50 years saying, "If we can put a man on the Moon, why can't we (do something comparatively simple)?"
And we haven't been back to the Moon for 47 years. When will it happen again? There's talk of it happening by 2024, but I wouldn't bet on it. Not without a better President than either Nixon or Trump.
