Word: apollo
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Soviet leaders have never played up the race to the moon in their domestic propaganda, and there was no evidence that Russians felt the same chagrin that bothered the U.S. when Sputnik 1 led the way into space. Russian TV provided only limited and delayed coverage of Apollo's flight. But President Nikolai Podgorny wired President Nixon after the splashdown: "Please convey our congratulations and best wishes to the courageous space pilots." Peking, on the other hand, attempted to jam all five of the Voice of America broadcasts in Chinese...
...Yugoslavia's Radio Zagreb pointedly emphasized the contrast between American candor and Soviet secrecy concerning space flights. Czechoslovakia issued special commemorative stamps, and a Hungarian television commentator talked of "amazing tasks" during the moon walk. Poles unveiled a soaring statue at the Cracow sports stadium in honor of Apollo's astronauts. Said Radio Warsaw: "Let them come back happily. Their defeat would be the defeat of all mankind...
Special editions came off presses from Taiwan to Fleet Street like confetti. Records for circulation, promotion, mass staffing, and words written were broken everywhere. At week's end the Miami News delivered to its readers a staggering 16-page, 33,000-word narrative describing the Apollo 11 mission. In New York, the Times devoted 18 pages to moon news. Even with a press run increased by 75,000, the Times literally disappeared from newsstands Monday morning-some copies going for upwards of $1 on the black market. Both the New York Post and Daily News datelined landing-day issues...
...press virtually ignored the moon landing, though one Hong Kong Communist daily headlined: THE AMERICAN PEOPLE PRAY: GOD GIVE ME A PIECE OF BREAD, DON'T GIVE ME THE MOON. On the other hand, Italy's Paese Sera, the unofficial Communist evening paper, devoted twelve pages to Apollo and ran a complimentary picture of Richard Nixon. In Paris, even the Communist paper L'Humanite called the moon walk a "dream from the depths of time realized"-although it managed to keep the words United States and American off its front page...
...with any overwhelming event, the fallout was widespread and sometimes offbeat. Scores of children born last week were named "Apollo" or "Moon," "Tranquillity" or "Luna." The Siam Motor Works offered scholarships from primary school through university for the Thai children born nearest the exact moments of lunar landing and splashdown. The Berlin Zoo christened three wildcat cubs born during the moon walk Neil, Buzz and Mike. For a "moon happening" in Vienna, a bakery produced a 300-lb., 6-ft. cake decorated with marzipan craters...