This Saturday, July 20 marks the 50 Year Anniversary of when man first walked on the moon. For those who watched it that Sunday night on black and white television sets, it is a memory to cherish. For the post moon landing generations raised on Star Trek, Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the question is “So what is the big deal?”

The question raises the fine line between fantasy and reality. The current generation suckled by chronic video games, do not appreciate that a rocket ship with breadboard computers had the computer memory capacity of less than 5 percent of a current home computer. Circa 1992, I will never forget watching people wait in line for five hours in a walk-through Star Trek television exhibit, while ignoring Charles Lindbergh’s airplane, The Spirit of Saint Louis and the Columbia, the Command Module from Apollo 11, the mission that first put man on the moon.

Since October 23, 2007, the Broward County Main Library in Ft. Lauderdale is the steward of a moon rock sliver, which was donated by Susan Eisele Black, the wife of the late Apollo 7 astronaut Donn F. Eisele. The Eisele family and astronaut Walter Cunningham were in attendance. Besides the moon rock sliver, the sixth floor of the Main Library features a 20 minute film about the Apollo 7 mission, along with relics from NASA with bookmarks about astronomy.

This Saturday, June 20 at 11 a.m., the Deerfield Beach Percy White will host a screening of a free movie. It deals with that subject. Due to license agreements, we can not disclose the title of the movie. Suffice it to say, the movie deals with the first man to walk on the moon. At 1:30 p.m., the Pompano Beach Library will be hosting a Watch Party with an edible craft. All ages with care givers are invited to attend.

Besides directing the Oscar nominated Apollo 11, Ron Howard also produced the underrated documentary In the Shadow of the Moon. Featuring color footage forgotten in NASA vaults, this colorful documentary is thrilling to watch. Featuring most of the astronauts who flew in the moon missions, the narration is both funny and inspirational.

Produced by Tom Hanks, From the Earth to the Moon is a 13 part miniseries that earned HBO multiple Emmy awards. While most of the episodes focus on space travel, this fantastic miniseries also broached topics like geology, changing media ethics and the impact of the astronauts’ wives. These three video productions are available through the Broward County Library.

Believers of conspiracy theories and #FakeNews often deny that man walked on the moon, although high powered telescopes have located the six American flags planted on the lunar surface. For all of the criticism about our nation, the United States of America is the only country that successfully put 12 men on the moon and returned them safely to earth.  It is a big deal.

Apollo 11 made history 42 years ago yesterday, having ferried two U.S. astronauts from Earth to the moon . On July 20, 1969, U.S. astronauts Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were the first men to walk on the surface of the moon. And Armstrong uttered the historic words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

It marked a significant achievement in the space race that had developed between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The pair had been locked in a decade-long push to put a man on the moon.

Aldrin and Armstrong’s moon walk was witnessed by more than a billion people worldwide, watching on television or listening to the radio, according to the Washington Post. Apollo 11 began its journey to the moon July 16, 1969. According to Time magazine, the Eagle Lunar Module landed on the moon on the afternoon of July 20, four days later. That night, a little before 11 p.m. Eastern time, Armstrong first set foot on lunar soil. The astronauts’ walk lasted a little more than two hours. During that time, they received a call from President Richard M. Nixon directly from the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C.

The space shuttle Atlantis’s landed in Florida today and ends the last of 135 missions over 30 years that delivered the Hubble telescope into orbit and helped build the International Space Station.

The four astronauts, led by Commander Chris Ferguson touched down at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 5:56 a.m. after a 13-day mission.