No list compiling historic events of the 20th Century would be quite complete without reference to arguably the human races crowning glory of those 100 years the first man to walk on the moon, on July 20, 1969 (in the US, officially in the UK it was the 21st). Apollo 11 carried Neil Armstrong, Edwin Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to that huge piece of rock which orbits the earth with the former becoming the first man ever to walk on the moon, shortly followed by Aldrin. Collins manned the spacecraft while his two crew members experienced the lunar world. After walking on the moon and planting a US flag, Armstrong spoke arguably the most famous sentence uttered in the 20th Century in the western world: One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind. Although newspapers around the world carried the news, the front page of The New York Times is perhaps the most memorable. MEN WALK ON MOON at the time was a truly eye-catching headline the human race had always looked to the skies, but now they had ventured into them and walked on an outer-world surface. It was a truly remarkable achievement. President Richard Nixon described his communication with the astronauts as certainly the most historic telephone call ever made. Nixon had his faults, most certainly, but truer words have rarely been spoken.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
