I was an unshaven lad of ten when it happened, but the historic momentousness of the moment was not lost on me. I wandered about the house in a daze at one point, periodically circling back to the television, which kept showing a studio tabletop model of the Lunar Excursion Module resting on the lunar surface. It was a day like no other.
A year or two later, one of the devoted nuns that taught us at St. Ignatius Elementary informed us during science class that the moon landing had been a hoax perpetrated by the government “because God never intended us to leave this planet.”
I suppose that when one is born into a world in which the moon landing is part of history class, rather than current events, one cannot possibly be as impressed by the achievement. Still, I think it is worth noting as one of the greatest technological achievements in human history.
There have been many versions of this saying: “They can put a man on the moon, but they can’t [YOUR COMPLAINT HERE]. Here’s my own version: “They can put a man on the moon, but they can’t remember when it happened!”