Apollo 8 orbits the Moon
1968 · Event
The first humans to leave Earth's gravity read Genesis from lunar orbit on Christmas Eve to the largest audience in history — the audacious flight that won the race in all but name.
On these timelines: Spaceflight, The Space Race, Master, USA, Cold War
More from Spaceflight
- Goddard launches the first liquid-fuel rocket (1926)
- First Space Shuttle flight (1981)
- V-2: the first rocket to reach space (1942)
- Apollo 17: the last Moon landing (1972)
- Tsiolkovsky's rocket equation (1903)
- First spacewalk (1965)
- Mir space station (1986)
- Shenzhou 5: China's first astronaut (2003)
Around 1968
- Apollo 11 moon landing (1969)
- Watergate scandal (1972)
- Iranian Revolution (1978)
- Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
- Yom Kippur War (1973)
- Prague Spring (1968)
- Vietnam War (American phase) (1965)
- The Troubles (1968)
- Six-Day War (1967)
- The Beatles (1960)