Neil Armstrong

Neil Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, to Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise Engel. He is of Scots-Irish and German descent, and had two younger siblings, June and Dean. Stephen Armstrong worked for the Ohio state administration, and the tribe moved around the state more than once in the 15 years taking after Armstrong's conception, living in 20 diverse towns. His love for flying grew in him during this time, and got off to an early start when his father took 2-year-old Neil with him to the Cleveland Air Races. On July 20, 1936, when he was 6, he experienced his first airplane flight in Warren, Ohio, when he and his father took a ride on a Ford Tri-Moter , the "Tin Goose".


In 1947, Armstrong started considering advanced plane design at Purdue University, where he was a part of Phi Delta Thetaand Kappa Psi. He was just the second individual in his tribe to revisit university, and was moreover received to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but the just build he knew (who had revisited MIT) deterred him from revisiting, telling Armstrong that it was not fundamental to run over the considerable distance to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a great training. His college tuition was paid for under the Holloway Plan – successful applicants committed to two years of study, followed by three years of service in the United States Navy, then completion of the final two years of the degree.

At Purdue, he earned average marks in his subjects, with a GPA that rose and fell over the eight semesters. Armstrong was honored a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical building from Purdue University in 1955, and, from the University of Southern California in 1970, a Master of Science degree in aviation design. Armstrong holds honorary doctorates from a number of universities.

On 20 July 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon. Armstrong was a veteran aviator: he had flown 78 combat missions over Korea as a Navy fighter pilot, then joined NASA as a civilian test pilot. He was accepted into the astronaut corps in 1962. Armstrong was the pilot of the Gemini 8 mission (started 16 March 1966) and afterward was named administrator for the Apollo 11 mission of 1969.

Along with crewmates Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin, Armstrong flew to the moon; while Collins circled the moon in the command module Columbia, Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the lunar surface in the lunar module Eagle. Armstrong was the first to step onto the moon's surface, uttering the famous phrase "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." After retiring from NASA in 1971, Armstrong was a professor at the University of Cincinnati for nearly a decade.