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Memories of watching Apollo 11: 'You could hear a pin drop'

This 2015 photo provided by June Dorricott of Brisbane, Australia, shows her during a visit to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. On July 21, 1969, while others were watching in the wee hours of the night or morning, June was spending the afternoon home on an unofficial day off from school: “I was seven years old and waiting at the bus stop in a little town called Toowoomba, Australia when my mother came up to get me. She told me I didn't have to go to school because a man was going to walk on the moon. Little Judy Wakefield, who was waiting with me, started to cry, and mum told her she had the day off too, so she could go home. I found out much later in life that we didn’t actually have off school. I really think she thought it was important that we witness a man make history live on TV. (Courtesy June Dorricott via AP)

NEW YORK — When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took their first steps on the moon in 1969, the world was watching.

Live TV coverage made hundreds of millions witnesses to history. They huddled in front of televisions in homes and gathered in auditoriums and schoolrooms as the Apollo 11 astronauts ventured onto another world for the first time.

Even now, 50 years later, that day is still deeply etched in memories of many. The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, NASA and others have gathered their stories for this week’s golden anniversary.

New Jersey’s Frank Schramm was 12 years old and away at camp. He remembers watching it on a small rented TV with the rest of the campers. He says “you could hear a pin drop.”

Jeremy Rehm, The Associated Press