Week of July 12-18, 2009 by Dennis Mammana on Creators.com

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Week of July 12-18, 2009

It occurred 40 years ago next week. Nearly everyone on the planet then remembers where they were and what they were doing.

On the evening of Sunday, July 20, 1969, more than 1 billion people huddled around their televisions to watch the most remarkable event in the history of mankind. It was a moment that humans had dreamt of for thousands of years: the landing of a man on the moon.

On the stark lunar plain known as the Sea of Tranquility sat Eagle, the Lunar Excursion Module. Inside, pilot Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. performed duties on his checklist. Overhead, 70 miles above the cratered terrain, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins orbited the moon in Columbia, the craft that would eventually return the astronauts to Earth.

But now, with the words "live from the moon" appearing on TV screens, the world watched as Commander Neil Armstrong slowly descended the ladder from the Lunar Excursion Module. He described the alien moonscape to amazed listeners a quarter-million miles away. As he descended, hearts around the world beat faster.

And then, at 10:56 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Armstrong stepped off of the ladder. As his boot touched the powdery soil of our nearest cosmic neighbor, he proudly spoke words that will live forever: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

Suddenly, the world erupted in joy.

People cheered and shouted, and car horns blared. Our age-old dream had become reality. A man was standing on the moon.

Older adults stared in amazement and relived memories of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. Youngsters watched with wide-eyed excitement and dreamed of making the journey themselves someday.

On the moon it was silent. Armstrong gazed upward into the black lunar sky at the sparkling blue and white globe he knew as home. This was the world where humans had evolved and learned through the millennia, where wars had been fought and lives lost over property, money and ideals. And it was the world where stargazers of ages past had gazed skyward and dreamed of traveling to the stars.

Nearly a century before, Russian space pioneer Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky recognized our need to journey to worlds beyond. "The Earth is the cradle of mankind," he wrote, "but one cannot remain in the cradle forever."

It was on that warm July night that we took our first steps from the cradle.

To find out more about Dennis Mammana and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.