The next-to-the-last of the 12 men to walk on the Moon, and the only one who had never served in the U.S. military, New Mexico’s Harrison Schmitt is 76 today. Schmitt was a geologist (B.S. Cal Tech, Ph.D. Harvard). He went to the Moon on Apollo 17 in 1972 (he claims to have taken the famous photo of Earth known as “The Blue Marble”). Schmitt was elected U.S. Senator in 1976, but defeated by Jeff Bingaman in 1982. Bingaman’s campaign slogan asked, “What on Earth has [Schmitt] done for you lately?” Schmitt lives in Silver City and serves in the cabinet of the current governor.
(Neil Armstrong was a civilian employee of NASA when he walked on the moon, but he had been a naval aviator during the Korean War.)
Dave Barry is 64 today. Tom Cruise is 49.
Yeardley Smith is 47. She’s the voice of Lisa Simpson and claims to have sounded pretty much the same since she was six.
The City of Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain on July 3rd in 1608. George Washington took command of the Continental Army on July 3rd in 1775. Jim Morrison of The Doors broke on through to the other side 40 years ago today.
Oooh, watch it with that “next-to-the-last” man to walk on the moon business. Schmitt maintains that he is actually the LAST man to walk on the moon – because he was the last of the 12 men to actually set foot on it. His commander on Apollo 17, Eugene Cernan, contended that HE was the last man because he was the last one to actually leave the moon and get back in the lunar module.
I’m with Schmitt on this.
Schmitt was nominated to be Secretary of the Energy & Minerals Department but withdrew after his views on global warming and refusal to allow a background check all but ensured he would not get past the State Senate Committee.
Yes, politically we’d have been better served if Cernan had gotten back in the lunar module first and left Schmitt on the moon.