50th Anniversary of 1969 Moon Landing

It's hard to believe that the 50th Anniversary of the moon landing is tomorrow.

It was back on July 20, 1969 that the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon. Later that day, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took those historic first steps down the ladder of the lunar module Eagle and onto the moon's surface.

I remember it very well. (I was ten years old.)

Back then I owned a Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder, and I recorded the landing as reported by Walter Cronkite. Later, the whole family stayed up late to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.

The next day (Monday), the Journal reported the historic event on its front page as shown below in the copy of the newspaper that my parents saved.

Here's the bottom half.

Reading the newspaper 50 years later, a few things surprised me.

I had forgotten that the Russians made one last attempt to win the Space Race by landing (more like crashing) the unmanned Luna 15 satellite on the moon at the same time we were there. They had hoped to scoop up some moon rocks before we did – but failed. (You can read all about it here on a NASA website and here.)

I also did not know that after President Nixon talked to the astronauts, he made two other special phone calls. 

As reported by the Associate Press in the Journal, "After a super long distance call to tell America's men on the moon "how proud we all are," President Nixon phoned Mamie Eisenhower and former President Lyndon B. Johnson to share his jubilation with them.

"AFTER TALKING with the astronauts, Nixon called Mrs. Eisenhower at the nearby White House mansion where she is visiting. He disclosed that the widow of the late President Dwight D. Eisenhower had commented earlier that "somebody up there is looking at them too" – referring to the late Gen. Eisenhower.

"Nixon phoned Johnson at his Texas home.

"White House Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler told reporters that the President informed Johnson that "I thought we ought to share this great moment."

"Johnson told Nixon, Ziegler said, he had been following the Apollo 11 activities all day and appreciated Nixon's call at the historic moment."

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The Journal had a nice, simply stated editorial that day that reflected how all Americans were feeling.

And to the right of the editorial was this great cartoon by Wayne Stayskal that was a tribute to the Apollo 1 crew (Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee) who perished in the January 1967 launchpad fire (which you can read about here and here). 

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A few more tidbits from the Journal back then...

On July 13, 1969 the paper’s front page included a small summary of the upcoming moon landing timeline of events for its readers to clip and save.

On the front page of the July 17, 1969 edition, this article appeared (below) which contemplated several hair-raising scenarios of what dangers might be facing the astronauts on the moon. Thank goodness none of them came to pass.

Lastly, on the actual day of the moon landing, the coverage of the historic event almost seems like an afterthought on the Journal’s front page of July 20, 1969.