Today We Celebrate the Birthday of "First Man" Neil Armstrong

His first flying lessons -- at age 15 -- were in an Aeronca 7AC Champion airplane made in Middletown, Ohio. 

In 1969 the Wapakoneta, Ohio, native — then in his late 30s — became the first man to step foot upon the Moon. “That’s one small step for man ; one giant leap for mankind,” he told the world. The 50th anniversary of that historic event was observed last month. 

His later years were spent on his farm in the Lebanon, Ohio, area and in a Cincinnati university classroom, teaching aerospace engineering to future masters of flight.  

On August 25, 2012, he died at age 82, an Ohio Buckeye to the end. 

Of course, we refer to Neil Armstrong, who would have been 89 years old today. 

A replica of the Aeronca 7AC airplane (the model in which Armstrong took flying lessons) is available for viewing at the Middletown branch of MidPointe Library, 125 South Broad Street. The red-and-yellow replica is suspended above the “Local History and Genealogy Gallery.” 

Biographies of Neil Armstrong and other astronauts in America’s Space program are available for check-out at MidPointe Library: www.midpointelibrary.org > Catalog Search 

 You’ll find even more material about the astronauts and America’s Space program in MidPointe’s vast eLibrary of books, audiobooks, magazines, music, movies and TV shows, research databases and local “Digital Archives” available at: www.midpointelibrary.org > eLibrary  

Photo credit : NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).

Sources : The website of the Armstrong Air & Space Museum, NASA.gov, and “The 2019 Chase’s Calendar of Events” available for checkout at MidPointe Library.