The Year 1969 Spawned Some Impressive Events… and one Unforgettable One

Okay, boomers and veterans. What can you remember about 1969? Let’s see… it marked the trial flights of both the Boeing 747 jumbo jet and the Concorde supersonic jet, the Beatles’ last concert and the first implanting of a temporary artificial heart into a human.

But ask anyone 50 or older to name the single coolest event of that year and the answer has to be: astronaut Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to set foot on the moon while uttering his famous quote: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 historic moon mission. Most baby boomers and veterans, who were among the estimated 500 million viewers to watch Armstrong and fellow astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin walk on the moon, can recall exactly where they were and with whom they witnessed that amazing event.

Upon returning to Earth, Armstrong, Aldrin and fellow astronaut Michael Collins spent 21 days in quarantine at a US military base, to ensure they were not bringing any alien organisms back with them. If they were carrying anything life-threatening, it’s remarkably slow-acting, since all three men, born in 1930, remain alive today.

There were a couple of safety issues with the Apollo 11 mission with which SafetyXChange members might not be familiar or may have forgotten. The first point is that the Eagle lunar module touched down on the moon with less than half a minute’s fuel remaining.

The second problem involved the accidental breaking of a re-ignition switch that was essential to send the astronauts back home. Their low-tech, but clever solution was to use a pen to push the launch sequence button. Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins astronauts safely returned to Earth on July 24, 1969.

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