It was July of 1969.  Exactly 50 years ago.  Richard M. Nixon was in the White House.  The Vietnam War was raging as a "police action" on the other side of the world.  Within the US there was much turmoil to include women's liberation marches and race protests in many cities.

The US and the USSR were engaged in a variety of global competitions: the arms race was on one side and the space race on the other.  Americans and Russians were both proud and each tried to outdo the other.
 

    SPUTNIK IN 1957

12 years earlier ... a short 12 years before 1969, the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1957 launched the first man-made satellite into orbit over the Earth.  It was round with a few antennae sticking out.  Sputnik was not much larger than a basketball, metallic and shiny, emitting a radio ping for a few weeks as it orbited far overhead.  This bold Soviet accomplishment shocked the American public and aroused the attention of the entire world.

America followed within months.  We were playing catch-up!  But on live TV being broadcast nationwide a few of the early American rockets blew up.  Yes, on live TV.  The Soviets kept improving and putting up more rockets and satellites.  (They would record them and then only show the successful launches, afterwards.)  The Russians put the first man into space in March of 1961, Yuri Gagarin!

In May of 1961, barely 2 months later, President Kennedy gave his famous speech claiming that the USA would embark on the challenge of putting a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s.  What an audacious claim!  At the time it was hard to believe this would be possible.

Throughout most of the 1960s the US was behind the Soviets as both sides rapidly developed space technology.

For America there were the Mercury rockets (with a one-man space capsule).  Then several Gemini flights (in two-man space capsules).  And by early 1966 (only 5 years after Kennedy's speech) the first Apollo space capsule (with 3 men!) was launched.  The Apollo program would then be the platform for preparing to go to the Moon.
 

    APOLLO 8 - CHRISTMAS EVE BROADCAST

There were serious disasters along the way.  Each systems failure led to new designs and safety improvements.  Each mission was a new learning experience.  In December of 1968 the famous Apollo 8 mission was launched.  It would travel all the way to the Moon, orbit 10 times around the back side and then come back.  Three astronauts were in the capsule as they made their famous Christmas Eve 1968 broadcast back to Earth.  They took turns, and quoted from Genesis, chapter 1:

William Anders:

"For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you".

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

Jim Lovell:

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Frank Borman:

"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

Borman then added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth."

The crew of Apollo 8 were the first men to ever leave Earth orbit and fly around and past the dark side of the Moon.  And then it was only half a year later when Apollo 11 was readied for launch.
 

    SATURN V ROCKET & APOLLO 11

The Saturn V Rocket was a marvel of human engineering.  It was colossal in size (about 36 stories tall) and it all - worked!  There were 13 Saturn V launches in 6 years, about 2 per year ending in 1973.

You will see a lot of old film footage of the Apollo 11 mission during this July, as it was truly one of the greatest achievements of modern mankind.  Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon on Sunday, July 20, 1969.  The world stopped what it was doing on that day.  It is estimated that a billion people around the globe crowded around TVs and radios everywhere to watch and listen as the two Earthmen walked on the Moon for the first time.  In human history there had never been anything like it before.

After less than 24 hours on the lunar surface, Armstrong and Aldrin lifted off from the Moon's surface and successfully reunited with Michael Collins up in the command module, then they safely returned to Earth.