A Christmas miracle could not have been more needed in the year 1968. With the Vietnam War at its height, race relations reaching a boiling point in the U.S., and the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, 1968 had been a dreadful year. Morale was low across the globe, but something happened that Christmas which changed human history forever. NASA took a gamble by sending Apollo 8 to orbit the Moon, but the mission was a success! On Christmas Eve, 1968, Apollo 8 entered lunar orbit. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders provided the people of Earth with a Christmas gift: the first photos taken by human beings of the Earth from deep space. Seeing this tiny, blue sphere from the Moon made people forget their toils and look up into the heavens with awe-inspiring wonder. Earthrise remains one of the most iconic photographs ever taken in human history.
This video is dedicated in honor of Apollo 8's mission commander, USAF Colonel Frank Borman (March 14, 1928 – November 7, 2023).
