Launched on 21 December 1968, Apollo 8 carried Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders on the first crewed flight to the Moon, and the first by humans beyond low Earth orbit. They orbited the Moon ten times, and on 24 December Anders took the photograph 'Earthrise', showing the blue Earth hanging above the grey lunar horizon. That evening they read from the Book of Genesis in a broadcast watched by perhaps a billion people. The mission, flown on a daring change of schedule, paved the way for the landing in 1969.
Before and after
- 18 October 1968Bob Beamon's long jump of 8.90 metres
- 5 November 19681968 United States presidential election
- 20 December 1968Death of John Steinbeck
- 21 December 1968Launch of Apollo 8
- 24 December 1968Apollo 8 orbits the Moon and photographs Earthrise
- 31 December 1968First flight of Tupolev Tu-144
- 1969Discovery of the Murchison meteorite
- 1969Invention of ed
- 1969Introduction of special drawing rights
More in Exploration & discovery
- 25 May 1961Kennedy commits the United States to a Moon landing
- 20 July 1976Viking 1 lands on Mars
- 1 July 2004Cassini enters orbit around Saturn and Huygens lands on Titan
- 6 August 2012Curiosity lands in Gale crater
- 25 August 2012Voyager 1 enters interstellar space
- 3 January 2019Chang'e 4 lands on the far side of the Moon
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.