Neil Armstrong
1930 – 2012 · United States
Known for: First human to walk on the Moon
“That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Biography
A test pilot who flew rocket planes to the edge of space and a Navy aviator who survived being shot down over Korea, Neil Armstrong was chosen to command Apollo 11, and on 20 July 1969 became the first human being to set foot on another world. His words, crackling across 384,000 kilometres, are among the most famous ever spoken.
What set him apart was what he did afterward: almost nothing, at least publicly. He shunned fame, taught engineering quietly in Ohio, and let the achievement speak for itself. "I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer," he once said, the most modest man ever to leave a footprint no wind will erase for a million years.