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Apollo 8 Astronauts
The year 1968 was marked by rioting in the nation's black ghettos and mounting protests over the war in Vietnam. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy had been assassinated, and there had been a Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. But as Time pointed out in its year-end summary, 1968 closed with an event that was bound to overshadow these other happenings. In late December, three astronauts (left to right) -- William Anders (born 1933), Frank Borman (born 1928), and James Lovell (born 1928) -- had embarked on the first successful human orbit of the moon, and on Christmas Eve, the trio reported live from their Apollo 8 spacecraft. The full implication of this achievement could not yet be understood. Nevertheless, Time could not help but conclude that of all the people who had made news in those past twelve months, Anders, Borman, and Lovell were the right choice for 1968's "Men of the Year."
Hector Garrido (born 1927)
Time cover, January 3, 1969 |