The Moon Landing ~ July 20, 1969

This year is the 43rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, an event on July 21 as recorded by NASA, which used Greenwich Mean Time, or July 20 as remembered by people in North America. Over at The Atlantic Alexis Madrigal has assembled an incredible set of photos documenting the trip.

As for myself, I was 9 years old in 1969, and my family was in rural Canada on a camping trip. Led by my Dad, an MIT trained mathematician who also had degrees from Harvard in physics and chemistry, the space program was a very big deal to my family. So we tried to find a t.v. where we could watch the landing. Eventually we found a motel, but when my Dad asked if we could watch on the t.v. in the lobby (the only t.v. in the hotel), the manager said "no."  We marched in, decamping on the rug in the lobby, and watched it anyway. A landing for us all.