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The First Moon Landing Was in 1864
Contrary to popular belief, Neil Armstrong was not the first man on the moon — however, he and Buzz Aldrin were the first people to return from the Moon alive. Through my own research, I have uncovered a history of humanity’s ventures into space, far richer than the standard narrative.
Since mankind first gazed at the heavens, he has dreamed of setting foot on the moon. The first serious attempt to accomplish this was by the Chinese nobleman Wan Hu in the second millennium B.C.(or in the 16th century Ming Dynasty period — the record is unclear). Wan attached 47 fireworks rockets to a sedan chair, climbed aboard, and had 47 servants light each of the rockets simultaneously when the full moon was directly overhead. We can laugh at his naiveté, however, at the time there was no reason not to assume that earth’s atmosphere extended upwards indefinitely, and Wan had carefully calculated the amount of thrust he would need, based on his figures for the moon’s distance (he believed that its distance from the earth was the same as that from Beijing to Shanghai). However, after the resulting explosion, Wan was never seen again.
