On Christmas morning, Apollo 8 left its lunar orbit and began
its journey back to Earth, landing safely in the Pacific Ocean
on on this day in 1968 after an historic six-day journey.

On December 21, Apollo 8 was launched by a three-stage
Saturn 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, astronauts
Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders were
aboard.     
   

On Christmas Eve, the astronauts entered into orbit around
the moon, the first manned spacecraft ever to do so.      

Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the
moon,was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with
astronauts Charles Conrad, Jr.; Richard F. Gordon, Jr.;
and Alan L. Bean aboard. 

President Richard Nixon (below center) viewed the liftoff
from Pad A at Cape Canaveral. He was the first president
to attend the liftoff of a manned space flight. 

Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr.; Command
Module Pilot Richard F. Gordon, Jr.; Lunar Module
Pilot Alan L. Bean.

   
CARLATA BRADLEY

At the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, a woman’s
rights convention—the first ever held in the United States—
convened with almost 200 women in attendance.

The convention was organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, two abolitionists who met at the 1840 World Anti-
Slavery Convention in London.

At 9:32 a.m. EDT, Apollo 11, the first U.S. lunar landing mission, 
was launched on a historic journey to the surface of the moon.

After traveling 240,000 miles in 76 hours, Apollo 11 entered into
a lunar orbit on July 19.

The crew of Apollo 11, from left, Neil Armstrong, Michael
Collins and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin in 1969. NASA/AP.

Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012)

On June 18, 1983,  the space shuttle Challenger was launched
into space on its second mission. On board the shuttle is Dr. 
Sally K. Ride, who as a mission specialist, became the first
American woman to travel into space. 

Ride, who had earlier pursued a professional tennis career,
answered a newspaper ad in 1977 from NASA calling for
young tech-savvy scientists who could work as mission
specialists. She died of pancreatic cancer at age 61.

              
Presidential Medal of Freedom
         (2013, posthumous)