Neil Armstrong took America to the moon on July 20, 1969 when the astronaut landed there in Apollo 11 with “Buzz” Aldrin and famously declared “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Roger Ailes describes the historic communication from space:
“I was in the Oval Office when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon because I was called in to coordinate the coverage,” Ailes recalls. “I got to thinking, We have a feed from the moon. We’ve got a feed from the Earth. I can set up the first interplanetary shot in history.”
The split screen solution made broadcast history. The following day, the moon landing rose on the country’s front pages and again on the 40th anniversary in 2009. A selection of those pages appears below (some cropped), along with Sunday’s front pages honoring Armstrong, who died Saturday at the age of 82. || Related: In TV coverage, “his death was like his life: strangely muted” (AP) | The best design decisions & worst mistakes on Armstrong front pages (Charles Apple) | People tweet memories of moon landing (Sarah Stokely/Neal Mann) | Photos to use (and avoid) for Sunday front pages featuring Neil Armstrong (Charles Apple) | Nixon speechwriter William Safire had a eulogy prepared in 1969, in case of a space disaster (via Jim Roberts) || Correction: This post originally stated that Michael Collins, who was also on the Apollo 11 mission, landed on the moon. He did not. Collins remained in orbit.
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