Today in History: The Space Race

On this day (May 25) in 1961, John F. Kennedy announced his goal of sending a man to the moon by the end of the decade. The Space Race had been a major part of JFK’s electoral campaign as he capitalized on the predominant feeling that Eisenhower had let the Soviet’s get a significant lead on the U.S. in this important field. However, he basically dropped the whole Space Race idea for the first few months of his presidency. Then on April 12, 1961 Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space and JFK had to do something to reassure the nation. He chose the Apollo Program and the goal of landing a man on the moon.