Neil Armstrong and Ed McMahon at Homecoming Parade photographs   Save
Wonderful World of Ohio
Description: This 2" x 2" (5.08 x 5.08 cm) photograph of astronaut Neil Armstrong and comedian Ed McMahon was taken at a homecoming parade held for Armstrong in 1969. More than 80,000 supporters greeted Armstrong upon his return to Wapakoneta, Ohio on September 6, 1969. Bob Hope served as marshal for the event, and guests included "Tonight Show" sidekick Ed McMahon, and Dr. Albert Sabin, who invented the polio vaccine. Hope joked with the crowd that Armstrong was adjusting well to life on Earth after his space visit, "but he keeps throwing his shoes out the window and eating toothpaste," referring to the system of trash disposal on early flights and the practice of packaging astronauts' food in tubes. Neil A. Armstrong (b. 1930), the first man to walk on the moon, was born in Wapakoneta. He received Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University. After serving as a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952, Armstrong joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in 1955. For the next 17 years he worked for NACA and its successor agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As a research pilot at NASA's Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, he was a project pilot on many pioneering high-speed aircraft. Armstrong transferred to astronaut status in 1962 and was assigned as command pilot for the Gemini 8 mission, which was launched on March 16, 1966. As spacecraft commander for Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing mission, Armstrong gained the distinction of being the first man to land a craft on the moon and first to step on its surface. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om3101_3735840_015
Subjects: Science and Technology; Arts and Entertainment; Celebrations; Parades & processions; Hope, Bob, 1903-2003; Armstrong, Neil, 1930-2012 ; Flight; Aeronautics; Astronauts; Television personalities
Places: Wapakoneta (Ohio); Auglaize County (Ohio)