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: “I believe this nation
should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is
out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to
Earth.”

With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar
spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey
to the moon, safely returns 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. The mission was headed f
or a landing on the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon. However,
two days into the mission, disaster struck 200,000 miles from
Earth when oxygen tank No. 2 blew up in the spacecraft.

General George Washington at Valley Forge.

DAVID MELENDY

On this day in 1970, Apollo 13 returned to Earth safely after an on-
board accident with an oxygen tank.

The Apollo 13 crew following recovery.

On this day in 1998, President Bill Clinton, America’s chief
executive, was impeached on two charges of perjury and
obstruction of justice by the U.S. House of Representatives,
becoming only the second president to be ordered to stand
trial in the Senate since Andrew Johnson in 1868.

President Bill Clinton speaks about the Monica Lewinsky scandal at 
the White House on January 26, 1998 as First Lady Hillary Clinton
looks on.

On this day in 1972, Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific,
ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.

The three astronauts (from left to right – Eugene Cernan, Ronald
Evans and Harrison Schmitt) get the red-carpet welcome back.