On July 20th, 1969 — forty-one years ago today, and less than six months shy of President Kennedy’s deadline — Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to set foot upon the Moon. We would land on the Moon five more times, the last being in December 1972. Phil Plait, aka The Bad Astronomer, says it’s been too long since we’ve walked on the Moon. I agree.
The Apollo 11 mission is well-documented, so I won’t rehash that here. Other people have done a better, more thorough job that I could hope to do on my own.
I grew up in Huntsville, so I naturally know a lot about the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. If you’ve never studied them, however, I’d recommend that you start with this Wikipedia entry for Apollo 11.
When you’re done, plan to spend some time on Google Moon. If you have a recent version of Google Earth installed, you can view the same data on a 3D terrain model with integrated 360-degree panoramic photos, as well as detailed models of the lunar lander module and the American flag that we left behind.
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