Neil Armstrong’s ‘giant leap for mankind’ changed human history
When man first harnessed fire, no one recorded it.
When the Wright Brothers showed man could fly, only a handful of
people witnessed it. But when Neil Armstrong took that first small
step on the moon in July 1969, an entire globe watched in grainy
black-and-white from a quarter million miles away
We saw it. We were part of it. He took that “giant
leap for mankind” for us.
Although more than half of the world’s population
wasn’t alive then, it was an event that changed and expanded the
globe.
“It’s a human achievement that will be
remembered forever,” said John Logsdon, professor emeritus of space
policy at George Washington University. Those first steps were beamed
to nearly every country around the world, thanks to a recently
launched satellite. It was truly the first global mass media event,
Logsdon said. An estimated 600 million people — 1 out of every 5 on
the planet — watched.
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indian point of view :
First man
on moon Neil Armstrong dies at 82
Neil Armstrong, a
self-described "nerdy" engineer who became a global hero
when as a steely nerved U.S. pilot he made "one giant leap for
mankind" with the first step on the moon. The modest man who
entranced and awed people on Earth has died. He was 82. Armstrong
died Saturday following complications resulting from cardiovascular
procedures, a statement from his family said. It didn't say where he
died.
Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that
landed on the moon July 20, 1969, capping the most daring of the 20th
century's scientific expeditions. His first words after setting foot
on the surface are etched in history books and in the memories of
those who heard them in a live broadcast.
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap
for mankind," Armstrong said.
A. Cuvelier
