Thread by @cfishman

It's July 16 — the anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11 to the Moon 51 years ago, in 1969.

The day of the launch of Armstrong, Aldin & Collins, the New York Times front page was sedate.

See below.

#Apollo51

2/ It was the era when you looked to newspapers the day after big events for spectacular coverage.

That's when they could capture the event in photos, could write stories, could unleash those 8-column headlines.

Here's the NYT front page the day after the launch.

3/ Couple fun things happened the Wednesday of the launch (in addition to the flawless launch itself):

Pres. Nixon called for a national holiday the following Monday (July 21), so everyone could stay up late the day of the Moon walk without worrying about work & school.

4/ The holiday idea got a little traction, but not much.

That day after the launch, in addition to the big 1A coverage of Apollo 11, the NYT produced a whole separate 20-page section.

'Man and the Moon.'

Opening page below.

5/ The NYT special section was an astonishing, bravura New York Times performance.

A dozen pieces & essays, many by NASA officials writing about what they were in charge of.

• Wernher Von Braun on rockets
• Sam Phillips, Apollo program director, on project management

6/ And more…

• Thomas Paine, head of NASA, on the prospect for nuclear-powered rockets making routine roundtrips to the Moon
• Chris Kraft, head of mission control, on Apollo's computers
• Rocco Petrone, head of Cape Kennedy, on the 5 months of prep for a single launch

7/ Plus…

Isaac Asmiov
Arthur C. Clarke
Robert Jastrow

…and stories by the NYT space reporters on the astronauts, the lunar module, & the 50,000-foot flight from lunar orbit to Moon landing.

The section would take a day to ready thoroughly.

And: a couple cool full-page ads.