2016-07-20 Wed

"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

20th July 1969 at 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong plants the first human foot on another world!

After a series of Apollo missions, Apollo 11 was the first spaceflight that landed humans on the Moon. Apollo 11 took off from Kennedy Space Centre with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin Jr., and Michael Collins aboard. The lunar module Eagle separated from the command module and landed on moon two hours later. The famous message of Armstrong “The Eagle has landed.”, was immediately radioed to Mission Control in Houston, Texas.

A 10 cent commemorative stamp was issued by the US Post to mark this historic movement of mankind. A 2.40 $ stamp was released on 20th July 1989 to mark the 20th anniversary celebration of Armstrong and Aldrin's historic achievement, and features the image of two astronauts planting an American flag into the moon's surface.

Many countries from all around the world have issued stamps and commemorative coins in celebration of this feat. Mali and US have issued fine gold and silver stamps respectively, featuring the “first man on moon”.

Isle of Man in 2009 issued a ‘First Man on the Moon’ Silver Coin celebrating the 40th anniversary of the event. Marshal Islands in 1989 issued a 5 dollar commemorative coin. Cook Islands too have issued a 20 dollar Gold coin and a 1 dollar colourful silver coin.

India Post too in 1969 issued a commemorative 20 naye paise stamp.

“Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the moon–July 1969 A.D–We came in peace for all mankind.”