Millions of Americans craned their necks to see the Soviet satellite Sputnik race across the ink black sky in October of 1957, marking the start of the space race. Many more heard about the first Russian's space flight in April of 1961. Premier Krushchev, with the accomplishment, boasted that socialism had conquered democracy. However, on May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy delivered a speech announcing that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, a feat that seemed next to impossible at the time. On July 20, 1969, with Neil Armstrong's words "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," Kennedy's promise came true.
Here is an excerpt from Kennedy's historic speech:
But why some say the moon? Why choose this as a goal? And they may ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and to do other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
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