There are a lot of public holidays that, because of their historical origins, no longer seem relevant to us. Some are even a little distasteful. Everyone who works appreciates a day off but do Australians really want to celebrate the Queen's birthday? Do Americans really feel that President's Day is a day for celebrating or, given the behaviour of the last 8 or so, is it a day of shame? Does the fact that some pilgrims stopped for lunch before massacring the natives deserve recognition?
And let's not get into the problems of Christmas and Easter or the holidays that mark the anniversaries of wars.
Not long ago there was a day when an event that began as a cynical exercise in political propaganda transcended nationalism and ideology; when a government spent billions of dollars on a project that hurt no-one; when the whole world could look at their televisions and see something that made them feel good about being human.
Let's dump one of the old holidays and make July 20th Apollo Day - the only public holiday that encourages people to look up and hope, to remember that once humans put their mind to it they can go anywhere and do anything.-- sirrobin, Feb 04 2001 Sputnik Tree Ornament http://www.halfbake...k_20tree_20ornamentWhat caused a few random thoughts to bump into each other. [sirrobin, Feb 04 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004] Kennedy Space Center's Apollo Page http://www-pao.ksc....y/apollo/apollo.htm [sirrobin, Feb 04 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004] (?) The Plaque http://images.jsc.n...o/AS11/10075190.jpgI know it's signed by Nixon but the other three were OK guys. Notice that the illustration shows the whole world and you have to look at the fine print down the bottom to figure out which part of it they were from. [sirrobin, Feb 04 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004] Better than Apollo day... http://www.filmsite.org/rock.htmlTBS would have to broadcast this on Apollo day. [pnewp, Feb 04 2001, last modified Oct 05 2004] (?) Festivus from Seinfeld http://seinfeld.dig...m/html/festivus.htmFor the rest-of-us [runonthespot, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] I like this idea. Good!-- Wes, Feb 04 2001 The other milestones are but steps along the way. Apollo 11 was the destination. Celebrating one of the others would be like celebrating Thanksgiving on the day the pilgrims left England, Australia Day on the anniversary of the First Fleet's departure, or Bastille Day on the anniversary of the prison's construction.
As for American Imperialism... as I said the Apollo project might have begun as an exercise in propaganda but that's not how most people saw it by the time the moon was reached (by which time it was the Russians "playing catch-up").
There is a plaque on the LEM descent stage which remains at the landing site. It says "We came in peace for all mankind." Even if it isn't absolutely true, isn't it a sentiment worth comemorating?-- sirrobin, Feb 05 2001 I'm all about having October 4th off. It's my birthday.-- centauri, Mar 30 2001 A happy Apollo Day to everyone who gave this a croissant. To everyone else: thhhppppt!-- sirrobin, Jul 21 2001 Kind of reminds me of festivus (see link)-- runonthespot, Dec 19 2002 I like this idea alot.-- BillyBoy, Nov 12 2003 Awesome, awesome to the max!-- quantum_flux, Feb 28 2007 I wouldn't say I find it "awesome", [Quantum], but it is an exceedingly good idea.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 28 2007 I'd give up my birthday in exchange for Apollo day-- quantum_flux, Feb 28 2007 + This is so good! We need to have some Happy Holidays!-- xandram, Jul 09 2014 Good idea. In 2000 years' time the only name from the 20th century in school history books (assuming "school" and "books" still exist) will be Neil Armstrong.-- hippo, Jul 09 2014 Oh heck yea. This is one of my all time favorite ideas on the HB.-- doctorremulac3, Jul 09 2014 A fine idea! Except it should be called Sputnik day. Fair is fair. And Sputnik is a better name, Apollo being a beautiful womanizing pagan god - threatening to some. Sputnik, on the other hand, supposedly translates to "fellow traveller of earth" and the thing is cute in a non-godly way. Bonus: maybe the Russians would be a little less grumpy if we threw them a bone.-- bungston, Jul 09 2014 //maybe the Russians would be a little less grumpy if we threw them a bone// - Russian foreign policy is founded on the principle that actions by any foreign state can only increase their level of grumpiness.-- hippo, Jul 09 2014 Color me inspired-- Voice, Jul 09 2014 Why not get the average date of all space events in the cold war between USSR and USA, and call that space day?-- mofosyne, Jul 11 2014 random, halfbakery