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Neil Armstrong grew up in in a small town called Wapakoneta located in Ohio. His family was always moving and by the age of 14 he had already lived in more than 15 towns. -
On July 26th, Neil along with his father had his first airplane ride which sparked his love for aviation. -
On Neil's birthday at the age of 16, he earned his pilot's license before he even had a driver's license. -
Under a Navy scholarship, Armstrong enrolled at Purdue to obtain a degree in aeronautical engineering. -
Armstrong fought in the Korean War as a naval aviator. He completed a total of 78 combat missions during his service. His final mission was on March 5, 1962. -
After his service in the Navy, Neil returned to Purdue and graduated with a bachelor of science in aeronautical engineering in 1955. -
Following his graduation, Armstrong joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor to NASA, as an aeronautical research scientist. -
Neil Armstrong joined NASA's space program in 1962 as one of the second batch of astronauts. -
Armstrong, the command pilot of Gemini 8, and R. Scott successfully completed the first manual space docking maneveur. -
On July 20, 1969, Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon which was broadcasted worldwide to an estimated 650 million people. Here, he delivered his iconic words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." -
In 1969, Richard Nixon awarded Neil Armstrong and the rest of his Apollo 11 crew with Presidential Medals of Freedom. -
In 1971, Armstrong left NASA to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati. He taught there for several years. He was beloved by the students and the faculty. -
In 1982, he became the chairman of Computing Technologies for Aviation. He served as the chairman for 10 years. -
In 1985, Neil Armstrong along with 5 other men who were deemed some of the greatest explorers went on an expedition to the North Pole. -
In 1986 on Ronald Reagan's request, Neil Armstrong joined the Rogers Commission as the vice chairman to investigate the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. -
On August 25th, 2012, one of America's heroes passed away while undergoing heart surgery in Cincinnati, Ohio.