Will Rook, writer for online slots site Betway, took to analyzing the biggest television events that stopped the world. These events garnered the highest number of Television audiences around the globe. One of the many events that he discusses is Apollo 11’s Moon landing in 1969.
The primary objective of Apollo 11, according to NASA, was to complete a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy on May 25, 1961: perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth. In 1961 President John F Kennedy pledged to send a man to the Moon by the end of the decade. An international race to facsimile their space prowess of putting people on the moon, was already underway between the United States and the Soviets. The United States wanted to emerge victorious at all costs.
This all led to the launch of Apollo 11 from Cape Kennedy on July 16, 1969, carrying Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. From the time of its launch on July 16, 1969, until the return splashdown on July 24, almost every major aspect of the flight of Apollo 11 was witnessed via television by hundreds of millions of people in nearly every part of the globe.
In actual numbers, it is estimated that 650m people – just under a fifth of the world’s population – watched Neil Armstrong become the first human to set foot on the moon. Those numbers are more impressive when you consider Armstrong’s first steps were at 22:56 in New York, 03:56 in the UK, and 02:56 in continental Europe. According to the post, around 18% of the global population witnessed the historical event in front of their television screens.
Armstrong radioed at 4:17 PM U.S. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” At 10:56 PM EDT on July 20, Armstrong stepped out onto the lunar soil with the words, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” (In the excitement of the moment, Armstrong skipped the “a” in the statement that he had prepared.) Aldrin joined his companion about 20 minutes later.
The cultural impact of the Moon landing proved, without question, profound. "Dark side of the moon," "the eagle has landed," and "one small step for man," permanently entered the American lexicon.
Although, since that event, there have been another 10 people who have walked on the lunar surface. But, none had the effect of stopping the world in the same way as the landing of Apollo 11.
