Ticker Tape Parade for Apollo 11

On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Colonel Buzz Aldrin, and Lieutenant Colonel Michael Collins made history when two of the Apollo 11 astronauts -- Armstrong and Aldrin -- became the first men to land on the Moon.

Their achievement earned them a rapturous ticker tape parade up Lower Broadway the following August, attended by an estimated four million people. During the City Hall ceremony, Mayor John Lindsay awarded the astronauts the City’s Gold Medal. Most Americans considered the Apollo 11 mission to be a victorious conclusion to the Soviet-American space race of the 1960s, and by 1972—the year of the last Apollo mission—NASA had confirmed its place as the world’s leading space program, with a total of 12 American astronauts having walked on the Moon.