FLORIDA, USA — On this day in 1968, the Apollo 8 astronauts witnessed something humans had never seen before — an "Earthrise."
Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders captured the iconic moment the Earth rose above the Moon's surface on Christmas Eve and sent the message back to Earth where things were a bit turbulent at the time.
"Christmas Eve, 1968. As one of the most turbulent, tragic years in American history drew to a close, millions around the world were watching and listening as the Apollo 8 astronauts - Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders - became the first humans to orbit another world," NASA wrote.
While the trio's command module "floated above the lunar surface" they each took turns reading from the book of Genesis while beaming back images.
According to NASA, Borman recalled, during a 40th-anniversary celebration, getting instructions from officials to do something "appropriate."
"The first ten verses of Genesis is the foundation of many of the world's religions, not just the Christian religion," Lovell said, per NASA. "There are more people in other religions than the Christian religion around the world, and so this would be appropriate to that and so that's how it came to pass."
Anders was the one to snap the awe-inspiring image of the Earth. And as we know, the rest was history.
