Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Kennedy in July 1969, carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong,  Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin to an assured place in American history and the realization of a dream envisioned by President John F. Kennedy, who had said in 1962: "We choose to go to the moon."  An estimated 650 million people sat glued to their TV sets, while Neil Armstrong took "...one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.

By landing on the moon, the United States effectively “won” the space race that had begun with the Soviet Union’s Sputnik launch in 1957.  Astronauts came to be seen as the ultimate American heroes.  The event was profound, impacting pop culture, merchandising, and popularizing technological innovations originally created by scientists to enable the moon mission itself.

Join the DiMenna-Nyselius Library in its celebration of this historic event, with displays of pop culture items, memorabilia, books and DVDS, in the lobby and lower level of the library.  The main exhibit runs from May 2019 through August 2019; the lower level exhibit will remain available through December 2019.

(Sources: "Apollo 11 Mission Overview," NASA, https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html; “The Space Race,” The History Channel, March 29, 2019, https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/space-race )