WHEN the news coursed through the networks and cable channels Sunday of the death of Neil Armstrong, those of us old enough to be aware of what was happening in 1969 were transported back to that incredible day, the day a man walked on the moon for the first time.

It was one of those transcendent events that we all remember, how we first heard about it, where we were, what we thought. Armstrong was the first, and as the grainy television picture showed him stepping onto the lunar surface, his words carried the heavy significance of the moment: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Armstrong and his fellow astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, who was the second man on the moon, spent nearly three hours walking around the vicinity of the spacecraft, collecting rocks and soil samples, taking pictures and even playing a little golf. “The sights were simply magnificent,” Armstrong once said, “beyond any visual experience that I had even been exposed to.”

The men planted an American flag, and a patch commemorating NASA astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who had died in action in the space race. Part of the remarkable accomplishment was that the two were returned to Earth safely. The adventure fired the imaginations of countless thousands who followed, and who still pursue space exploration.

It was the late President John F. Kennedy who set the goal, during his inaugural speech in 1960. America, he said, will put a man on the moon before the end of this decade. We made it with a few months to spare.

One story described the “spellbound millions” who watched on television, itself an evolving medium, as the Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. We were among them, as we’re sure were many of you.

Armstrong, who died at the age of 82 from complications following heart surgery, was a modest man who wore his fame lightly. He never allowed himself to be caught up in the celebrity and glamour of the space program. “I am, and ever will be, a white socks, pocket protector, nerdy engineer,” Armstrong said in 2000, in one of his rare public appearances, “and I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession.” He never returned to space after that famous landing, nor did Aldrin.

“As long as there are history books, Neil Armstrong will be included in them, remembered for taking humankind’s first small step on a world beyond our own,” said the current NASA administrator, Charles Bolden. He was a true hero, one giant life for mankind.