At 12:51 EDT on July 24, 1969, Apollo 11, the U.S. spacecraft that
had taken the first astronauts to the surface of the moon, safely
returned to Earth.

The American effort to send astronauts to the moon had its origins
in a famous appeal President John F. Kennedy made to a special
joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961.
        
        

The Apollo 11 astronauts are, from left, Neil Armstrong,
Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. They were quarantined
after splashdown to ensure they did not bring back any contamination from the moon. (Image credit: NASA)

ROSS SIMPSON

A Piper Saratoga similar to the accident aircraft.

On July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. died when the light
aircraft he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off
Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Kennedy’s wife, Carolyn Bessette, and sister-in-law, Lauren
Bessette, were also on board and died.

The Piper Saratoga departed New Jersey‘s Essex County
Airport; its intended route was along the coastline of
Connecticut and across Rhode Island Sound to Martha’s
Vineyard Airport.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr.
(November 25, 1960 – July 16, 1999

     
    
    
         
DAVID MELENDY

With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar
spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey
to the moon, safely returned to Earth on April 17, 1970.

On April 11, the third manned lunar landing mission was
launched from Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell,
John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise.

Swigert reported to mission control on Earth, “Houston, we’ve
had a problem here,” and it was discovered that the normal
supply of oxygen, electricity, light and water had been disrupted.

From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Apollo 16, the fifth of six U.S.
lunar landing missions, was successfully launched on its
238,000-mile journey to the moon.

Four days later, the three astronauts returned to Earth, safely
splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

    
SANDY KOZEL
   

Thomas Jefferson (April 13 April 2], 1743 – July 4, 1826)

Future President Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the Declaration
of Independence and the nation’s preeminent political theorist, 
was born on April 13, 1743.

He was the third president of the United States from 1801 to
1809 and the nation’s first U.S. secretary of state under
George Washington.