Astronaut Neil Armstrong in April 1969, while training for the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. Photo by Bettmann/Corbis

Staff report

American astronaut Neil Armstrong died Saturday Aug. 25, 2012, at age 82 following complications from recent heart surgery, according to a statement released by his family.

On July 20, 1969, Armstrong stepped off the lunar landing module Eagle, and became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.

Nearly 240,000 miles from Earth, Armstrong spoke these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Liftoff: Apollo 11, the first mission to land on the moon, blasts off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla, at 9:32 a.m. July 16, 1969. Photo by NASA/Science Faction/Corbis)

Source: www.history.com