Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

Sat 03 Mar 2007Rockets and the right stuffHistory:Not that I remember it, but on July 20th, 1969, I was whisked out of my cot and popped down uncomprehendingly in front of the television to watch a piece of history. Quite what I made of Neil Armstrong taking his "small step" is anyone's guess, but I have always been curiously glad that I saw the first man set foot on the moon. I was hardly alone.One billion people around the world watched the landing on live television - the biggest audience in TV history. President Nixon went so far as to declare the occasion "the greatest week in history since the beginning of the world, the creation". Only the evangelist Billy Graham spoiled the party by upbraiding the president with the tart observation that the birth of Jesus, the crucifixion and the first Easter might rank higher on the scale of world events.