The moment in time when the world stopped spinning.

The manned program for NASA started with Project Mercury and Gemini and culminated in the Apollo Program which took the USA to the moon.

On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space when he piloted Freedom 7 on a 15-minute suborbital flight. 

John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962 during the flight of Friendship 7.

The video below is a depiction of the events.  The video of the newscasts are accurate and people globally watched at whatever screens were available to them to witness the USA's Neil Armstrong as he stepped on the moon.