LONDON: One person who is happy that the astronauts landed safely is British science-fiction fan, David Threifall.

David, from Preston, Lancashire, laid a ten-pound bet with a British bookmaker five years ago that man would land on the moon before 1971.

Last night [July 20], with the spidery eagle moon safely down, he is ten pounds richer. The bookmaker had given him odds of 1,000 to 1 against.

David heard the last exciting moments of the landing in the independent television studios of London.

[Meanwhile, as reported by an agency in Houston,] A group of fifty Negro women and children staged a protest demonstration against the cost of the US Space Programme as Armstrong and Aldrin were landing on the moon.

They stationed themselves at the model of the lunar module in Houston carrying banners reading, “More money now”, “Remember the hungry” and “Countdown is swiftly approaching for our children.”

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2019