50 YEARS AGO…

On a late summer day in 1962, U.S. President John F Kennedy announced that Americans would land on the Moon by the end of the decade. Mere weeks before the Cuban Missile Crisis threatened the fate of the world, Kennedy was promising to catch up and pass the Soviet Union in the space race. The following fall, in November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated.

While President Kennedy died in Dallas, his push for the Moon did not. Hundreds of thousands of NASA employees made beating the Soviets to the lunar surface, and doing it by the end of the decade, their lone goal. The two sides traded successes and failures, winners and runners-up for the rest of the decade, until July 1969.

With the successful launch of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969, three American astronauts — Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins — were on their way to the Moon and into history books. Four days later, on a summer Sunday, as an estimated 500 million people watched on television back on Earth and Collins watched from two miles above the lunar surface, Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the Moon. Aldrin followed minutes later.

Americans made it to the Moon by the end of the decade. Armstrong and Aldrin planted an American flag. They also left a plaque reading, in part: “We came in peace, for all mankind.”

INTERACTIVE TIMELINE

The Apollo 11 crew members stand before a lunar module mockup in a pose for photographs before they started training session for their July moon journey in Cape Kennedy, Florida, Thursday, June 19, 1969. From left: command pilot Michael Collins, commander Neil A. Armstrong and lunar module pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. (AP Photo)
This photo, taken July 16, 1969, shows Apollo 11 crew members, led by Neil Armstrong, heading for the van that will take them to the rocket for the launch to the moon. (AP Photo/NASA)
The Project Apollo 11 blastoff to the moon from Cape Kennedy, Florida, July 16, 1969. (AP Photo/NASA)
Apollo 11 Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., are riding in this spacecraft as it lifts off the pad at Cape Kennedy, Fl., July 16, 1969. (AP Photo/NASA)
The Apollo 11 command module pilot astronaut Michael Collins, takes it easy during a break in the training for the July moon landing journey in Cape Kennedy, Florida, June 19, 1969. Astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., will take a walk on the lunar surface and Collins will circle alone in moon orbit. (AP Photo)
Berliners stand in front of a TV shop and look through the window to observe the start of the Apollo 11 space mission on television, June 16, 1969, Berlin, Germany. (AP Photo/Edwin Reichert)
Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, stands on the lunar surface after the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969. The Lunar Module is seen in the background. (AP PHOTO)
FILE – In this July 1969 file photo, Astronaut Edwin Aldrin walks by the footpad of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module. (AP/Photo, NASA, file)
View of the earth from the moon, taken from Apollo 11 in July of 1969.
Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. walks on the surface of the moon, July 30, 1969, with seismogaphic equipment which he just set up. The flag like object on a pole is a solar wind experiment and in the background is the Lunar Landing Module. (AP Photo/NASA/Neil Armstrong) (AP Photo/NASA/Neil Armstrong)
Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, prepares to deploy the Early Apollo Scientific Experiments Package (EASEP) during Apollo 11 lunar surface extravehicular activity, July 20, 1969. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, took this photograph with a 70 mm lunar surface camera. Aldrin is removing the EASEP from its stowed position. (AP Photo/NASA/Neil A. Armstrong)
Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., lunar module pilot, descends steps of Lunar Module ladder as he prepares to walk on the moon, July 20, 1969. This picture was taken by astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, Commander, with a 70mm surface camera. (AP Photo/NASA/Neil A. Armstrong)
An estimated 10,000 persons gather to watch giant television screens in New York’s Central Park and cheer as astronaut Neil Armstrong takes man’s first step on the moon on July 20, 1969. The Apollo 11 lunar mission was launched July 16. (AP Photo)
Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin carries scientific experiments to a deployment site south of the lunar module Eagle. One experiment involved the inner composition of the moon, and another tried to determine the exact distance from Earth. Photo was taken by Neil Armstrong of the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. (AP Photo/NASA/Neil Armstrong)
Astronaut Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. poses for a photograph beside the U.S. flag deployed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. Aldrin and fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong were the first men to walk on the lunar surface with temperatures ranging from 243 degrees above to 279 degrees below zero. Astronaut Michael Collins flew the command module. The trio was launched to the moon by a Saturn V launch vehicle at 9:32 a.m. EDT, July 16, 1969. They departed the moon July 21, 1969. (AP Photo/NASA/Neil A. Armstrong)
A footprint left by one of the astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission shows in the soft, powder surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. Commander Neil A. Armstrong and Air Force Col. Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. became the first men to walk on the moon after blastoff from Cape Kennedy, Fla., on July 16, 1969. They headed back home from the lunar surface on July 21, 1969. The end of man’s first voyage to another planet ended with a splashdown 950 miles southwest of Hawaii, thus achieving President John F.Kennedy’s challenge to land men on the moon before the end of the 1960s. (AP Photo/NASA)
A view of the Apollo Command Module with astronaut Michael Collins aboard as seen from the Lunar Module, July 20, 1969. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin in the Lunar Module have separated from Apollo 11 and prepare to go to the lunar surface. Moon terrain in background is the far side of the moon. (AP Photo/NASA)
This photograph of astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander, was taken inside the Lunar Module while it rested on the lunar surface, July 20, 1969. Astronauts Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot, had already completed their extravehicular activity when this picture was made. (AP Photo/NASA)
The Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage is photographed from the command service module during rendezvous in lunar orbit, July 20, 1969. The large dark colored area in the background is Smith’s Sea. The Earth rises above the lunar horizon. (AP Photo/NASA)
An estimated 10,000 persons gather to watch giant television screens in New York’s Central Park and cheer as astronaut Neil Armstrong takes man’s first step on the moon on July 20, 1969. The Apollo 11 lunar mission was launched July 16. (AP Photo)
After an eight day mission on the moon, the Apollo 11 command module lands in the Pacific Ocean and the crew waits to be picked up by U.S. Navy personnel on July 24, 1969. (AP Photo)
After an eight day mission on the moon, the Apollo 11 command module lands in the Pacific Ocean and is about to be safely recovered by U.S. Navy helicopters on July 24, 1969. (AP Photo)
U.S. Navy personnel, protected by Biological Isolation Garments, are recovering the Apollo 11 crew from a re-entry vrehicle, which landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969, after an eight day mission on the moon. (AP Photo)
Apollo 11 spaceflight commander and the first man to set foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong, center, is shown with his fellow spacemen, Edwin Buzz Aldrin, center, and Michael Collins arrived back, July 27, 1969, Houston, Tex. (AP Photo)
FILE – In this photo taken July 24, 1969 U.S. President Richard Nixon, back to camera, greets the Apollo 11 astronauts in the quarantine van on board the U.S.S. Hornet after splashdown and recovery July 24, 1969. The Apollo 11 crew from left: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. Splashdown was east of Wake Island, and south of Johnston Atoll. The first landing of a human being on the moon on July 20, 1969 celebrate its 40th anniversary this year 2009. (AP Photo/File)
Apollo 11 astronauts stand next to their spacecraft in 1969, from left to right: Col. Edwin E. Aldrin, lunar module pilot; Neil Armstrong, flight commander; and Lt. Michael Collins, command module pilot. (AP Photo)