ROSS SIMPSON
On this day in 1969, Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, FL,
and began the first manned mission to land on the moon.
Nasa astronauts from left: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.
MIKE GRACIA
On this day in 1971, President Nixon announced that he’d sent Henry Kissinger to China and that the result of these meetings was an agreement for a presidential trip to China to seek a ‘’normalization
of relations.”
President Nixon shakes hands with Premier Chou En-lai of the
People’s Republic of China.
President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon Visiting the
Great Wall of China.
Buzz Aldrin (Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.) became 89 in January.
(FoxNews) – A number of Apollo 11 artifacts that were owned by Buzz Aldrin
(above) will be up for auction at Sotheby’s later this month.
The Apollo 11 lunar module pilot has consigned 11 items for auction, which
include pages from the mission’s flown flight plan and flown data file. They
include a “Mission Rules Summary; from the Apollo 11 data file, which
details the steps to be followed following a spacecraft malfunction. The
sheet has a pre-sale estimate of $30,000 to $50,000.
The first and last pages of the flown Apollo 11 Flight Plan are also up for
auction. The first page, which begins with the words “LIFTOFF,” has a pre-
sale estimate of $30,000 to $50,000. The final page describes the activities
to be performed during the last 2 hours of the mission and has a pre-sale
estimate of $25,000 to $35,000. All of the sheets in the auction are signed
by Aldrin.
On July 14, 1968, Atlanta Braves slugger Henry “Hank” Aaron hits
the 500th home run of his career in a 4-2 win over the San Francisco Giants.
Henry Louis Aaron turned 85 in February.
President Abraham Lincoln (above) signed into law a measure calling
for the awarding of a U.S. Army Medal of Honor (above) in the name
of Congress “to such noncommissioned officers and privates as shall
most – distinguish themselves by their gallantry in action, and other
soldier like qualities during the present insurrection.”
The first U.S. Army soldiers to receive what would become the nation’s
highest military honor were six members of a Union raiding party who
in 1862 penetrated deep into Confederate territory to destroy bridges
and railroad tracks between Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Atlanta,
Georgia.
In 1863, the Medal of Honor was made a permanent military decoration
available to all members, including commissioned officers, of the U.S.
military. It is conferred upon those who have distinguished themselves
in actual combat at risk of life beyond the call of duty.
