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Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, on Aug. 5, 1930, to Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise Engel.
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He developed a fascination with flight at an early age and earned his student pilot's license when he was 16.
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In 1947, Armstrong began his studies in aeronautical engineering at Purdue University on a U.S. Navy scholarship.
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Neil was a naval aviator from 1949 to 1952 and served in the Korean War.
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Attended Purdue University
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Armstrong was selected to be part of NASA's second group of astronauts, who flew on the two-seat Gemini missions to test out space technology, and the three-seat Apollo missions that ultimately took 12 people to the surface of the moon
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Armstrong, as command pilot of Gemini 8, and David R. Scott rendezvoused with an unmanned Agena rocket and completed the first manual space docking maneuver.
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Armstrong, along with Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins, blasted off in the Apollo 11 vehicle toward the Moon. Four days later, at 4:17 PM U.S. Eastern Daylight Time, the Eagle lunar landing module, guided manually by Armstrong, touched down on a plain near the southwestern edge of the Sea of Tranquillity
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From 1971 to 1979 he was professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati (Ohio)
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in Cincinnati Ohio at age 82