Birth of Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong was born on 5 August 1930 in Wapakoneta. An American astronaut and aviator, Armstrong served as a naval pilot in the Korean War and worked as a civilian test pilot, flying the X-15 rocket plane. He joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1962, and in 1966 commanded Gemini 8, which achieved the first docking in space. As commander of Apollo 11 he became the first person to walk on the Moon on 20 July 1969, with Buzz Aldrin, while Michael Collins remained in orbit. He later taught aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati and avoided publicity, and he served on the commission that investigated the Challenger accident.

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