Apollo 8 Enters Orbit Around Moon on Christmas Eve 1968 December 24, 1968 Evening Capital Newspaper
On Christmas Eve of 1968, while war was being waged in Vietnam against the forces of Communism on Earth,
Apollo 8 astronauts Frank F. Borman, II,
James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders maneuvered their spacecraft into orbit around the moon. Launched three days earlier on December
21, they became the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth orbit, orbit the moon, and return safely to Earth. The image below is the front page
of my hometown newspaper, the Evening Capital, published in Annapolis, Maryland. My father, Arthur Blattenberger, was manager of the classified
advertising department for 25 years before succumbing to a heart attack at age 51.
Front page of the Evening Capital newspaper announces Apollo 8's insertion into lunar orbit.
