Neil Armstrong's famous line, "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," may not have come across exactly as he intended.
After the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the moon, the astronaut who took the historic first step explained that what people heard on TV and radio did not match what he meant to say.
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. When Armstrong exited the Lunar Module later that day, he became the first person to step onto the moon.
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," he announced ... or so everyone assumed.
After returning to Earth and completing a 21-day quarantine, Armstrong spoke to the press and explained that his message had been incorrectly transcribed.
He thought he'd said, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind," which intensifies the contrast between the two halves of the phrase. Without the "a," the phrase essentially means, "That's one small step for humanity, one giant leap for humanity."
Adding the "a" makes Armstrong's intended meaning easier to interpret: the moon landing was a physically small act for him as an individual, but a colossal achievement for humanity and the advancement of space exploration.
Armstrong listened to the recording years later and admitted that he couldn't hear himself say "a" either. In 2006, computer programmer and speech analyst Peter Shann Ford used modern equipment to analyze the recording and concluded that the astronaut did, in fact, say "a," but it was muffled by static.
Regardless of what was said or what was heard, the action speaks for itself. Armstrong really did take a small step onto the moon in 1969, and it really was, then and now, a giant leap for humanity.