Neil Armstrong
Photo: NASA, 1969 · public domain
A naval aviator who flew seventy-eight combat missions in Korea, then a test pilot on the rocket-powered X-15 that climbed to the edge of space. He joined the astronaut corps as a civilian. On Gemini 8 in 1966 he made the first docking in orbit, and when the craft was thrown into an uncontrolled spin he saved the crew by damping it by hand. On 20 July 1969 he landed the lunar module manually with twenty seconds of fuel to spare and stepped out first. He carried the fame unwillingly: he left NASA, taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati, gave almost no interviews and sold neither autographs nor his name. He died in 2012.
He was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio on 5 August 1930 at 00:31 Eastern time; the hour is on his birth certificate.