Apollo 8, the first mission reaching the Moon, is launched
On this day, in 1968, NASA's Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to leave the Earth's orbit and the first to orbit the Moon and to return. Thus, its crew of three astronauts, was the first to escape the gravity of a celestial body, and the first to fly to the Moon and to watch an Earthrise.
Plum Blossom and the Moon (c. 1803)
Katsushika Hokusai
"Plum Blossom and the Moon" is an oil on canvas painting from c. 1803 by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. Hokusai was born in 1760 and is the artist responsible for the famous prints "36 Views of Mount Fuji", including the famous Great Wave off Kanagawa. The name Hokusai is itself linked to the night sky being an abbreviation of Hokushinsai or "North Star Studio."
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