@astro.kenzie
When Apollo 8 orbited the Moon in 1968, the United States (and the whole world for that matter) had had a terrible year. Here in the states, we were in the throes of the ugly Vietnam War, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated, and we were politically divided like never before. We were a very weary nation on December 24, 1968. Yet when Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders orbited the Moon for the first time and broadcasted footage of our beautiful Blue Marble from nearly a quarter of a million miles away, we were astounded, and there was a sense of unity in our nation. We finally came together on Christmas to celebrate something we all had in common: our precious planet. Many say that 2016 has been a terrible year as well, which I agree with. Terrorism continued to rock our planet, one of the most heated elections in history left my country divided more than ever, and horrible shootings and killing of people continued to take place here in the United States. But now I want to ask y