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It Was 50 Years Ago Today

It Was 50 Years Ago Today
The three crew members of NASA's Apollo 11 lunar landing mission pose for a group portrait a few weeks before the launch, May 1969. From left to right, Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin Jr. Space Frontiers/Getty Images
Mark Hendrickson
Mark Hendrickson
contributor
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Commentary

Those of you of a certain vintage will recognize the headline as a tweaked version of the opening lyric of the Beatles’ iconic “Sgt. Pepper’s” album (“It was 20 years ago today ..."). Well, it was 50 years ago—July 20, 1969—when U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon, leaving the third member of the Apollo 11 crew, Michael Collins, orbiting the moon in lonely solitude.

Mark Hendrickson
Mark Hendrickson
contributor
Mark Hendrickson is an economist who retired from the faculty of Grove City College in Pennsylvania, where he remains fellow for economic and social policy at the Institute for Faith and Freedom. He is the author of several books on topics as varied as American economic history, anonymous characters in the Bible, the wealth inequality issue, and climate change, among others.
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