Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first to reach the Moon, orbit it, return. Its three-astronaut crew—Frank Borman, James Lovell, William Anders—were the first humans to fly to the Moon, to witness and photograph an Earthrise, to escape the gravity of a celestial body. Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968, was the second crewed spaceflight mission flown in the United States Apollo space program after Apollo 7, which stayed in Earth orbit. Apollo 8 was the third flight and the first crewed launch of the Saturn V rocket, was the first human spaceflight from the Kennedy Space Center, located adjacent to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Planned as the second crewed Apollo Lunar Module and command module test, to be flown in an elliptical medium Earth orbit in early 1969, the mission profile was changed in August 1968 to a more ambitious command-module-only lunar orbital flight to be flown in December, as the lunar module was not yet ready to make its first flight.

Astronaut Jim McDivitt's crew, who were training to fly the first lunar module flight in low Earth orbit, became the crew for the Apollo 9 mission, Borman's crew were moved to the Apollo 8 mission. This left Borman's crew with two to three months' less training and preparation time than planned, replaced the planned lunar module training with translunar navigation training. Apollo 8 took 68 hours to travel the distance to the Moon; the crew orbited the Moon ten times over the course of twenty hours, during which they made a Christmas Eve television broadcast in which they read the first ten verses from the Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. Apollo 8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 11 to fulfill U. S. president John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s; the Apollo 8 astronauts returned to Earth on December 27, 1968, when their spacecraft splashed down in the northern Pacific Ocean. The crew members were named Time magazine's "Men of the Year" for 1968 upon their return.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States was engaged in the Cold War, a geopolitical rivalry with the Soviet Union. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite; this unexpected success stoked imaginations around the world. It not only demonstrated that the Soviet Union had the capability to deliver nuclear weapons over intercontinental distances, it challenged American claims of military and technological superiority; the launch triggered the Space Race. President John F. Kennedy believed that not only was it in the national interest of the United States to be superior to other nations, but that the perception of American power was at least as important as the actuality, it was therefore intolerable to him for the Soviet Union to be more advanced in the field of space exploration. He was determined that the United States should compete, sought a challenge that maximized its chances of winning; the Soviet Union had better booster rockets, which meant Kennedy needed to choose a goal, beyond the capacity of the existing generation of rocketry, one where the US and Soviet Union would be starting from a position of equality—something spectacular if it could not be justified on military, economic, or scientific grounds.

After consulting with his experts and advisors, he chose such a project: to land a man on the Moon and return him to the Earth. This project had a name: Project Apollo. An early and crucial decision was the adoption of lunar orbit rendezvous, under which a specialized spacecraft would land on the lunar surface; the Apollo spacecraft therefore had three primary components: a command module with a cabin for the three astronauts, the only part that would return to Earth. This configuration could be launched by the Saturn V rocket, under development; the initial crew assignment of Frank Borman as Commander, Michael Collins as Command Module Pilot and William Anders as Lunar Module Pilot for the third crewed Apollo flight was announced on November 20, 1967. Collins was replaced by Jim Lovell in July 1968, after suffering a cervical disc herniation that required surgery to repair; this crew was unique among pre-Space Shuttle era missions in that the commander was not the most experienced member of the crew: Lovell had flown twice before, on Gemini VII and Gemini XII.

This would be the first case of a commander of a previous mission flying as a non-commander. As of the end of 2019, all three Apollo 8 astronauts remain alive; the backup crew assignment of Neil Armstrong as Commander, Lovell as CMP, Buzz Aldrin as LMP for the third crewed Apollo flight was announced at the same time as the prime crew. When Lovell was reassigned to the prime crew, Aldrin was moved to CMP, Fred Haise was brought in as backup LMP. Armstrong would command Apollo 11, with Aldrin as LMP and Collins as CMP. Haise served on the backup crew of Apollo 11 as LMP and flew on Apollo 13 as LMP. During Projects Mercury and Gemini, each mission had a backup crew. For Apollo, a third crew of astronauts was known as the support crew; the support crew maintained the flight plan and mission ground rules, ensured that the prime and backup crews were apprised of any changes. The support crew developed procedures in the simulators those for emergency situation

Henry Peyton Cobb was an English banker and Liberal politician. Cobb was born in Banbury, the son of Timothy Rhodes Cobb and his wife Charlotte, née Pix, his father was a partner the family in girth-weaving business and in Cobbs' Bank in Banbury. His father was a Unitarian and Cobb was baptised at the Horse Fair Presbyterian chapel, he became a partner in the family bank and a solicitor in London, where he lived at Wealdstone House Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex. In 1885 Cobb was elected as Member of Parliament for Rugby, he held the seat until 1895. Cobb died at the age of 74, he married Frances Taylor. His son John Henry married daughter of John Jaques II, of Jaques of London, he was the grandfather of Michael Cobb. He married Elizabeth Sharpe as his second wife in 1872, his daughter Mildred married 2nd Baron Ilkeston. Coat of arms: Per chevron gules and sables, two shovellers in chief argent, a fish naiant in base. Crest: an elephant passant, or. Motto: Spectemur agendo Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Henry Peyton Cobb

Manhattan Latin is an album by American jazz vibraphonist Dave Pike, recorded in 1964 for the Decca label. The album is among Chick Corea's earliest recordings The Allmusic site awarded the album 4 stars stating "Manhattan Latin captures Dave Pike in flux between the straight-ahead approach of his earlier sessions and the psychedelic pop-jazz of his efforts for MPS: a playful yet methodical immersion into pure, sunkissed groove, its artful assimilation of global rhythms and textures anticipates the direction of Pike's most memorable work". All compositions by Dave Pike except as indicated "Baby" - 2:49 "Que Mal Es Querer" - 3:18 "Not a Tear" - 4:01 "Mambo Dinero" - 2:39 "Montuno Orita" - 3:23 "Aphrodite" - 3:16 "La Playa" - 3:06 "Latin Blues" - 2:56 "South Sea" - 2:38 "Sandunga" - 2:41 "Dream Garden" - 3:25 "Vikki" - 5:26 Dave Pike - vibraphone Dave Burns - trumpet Ray Copeland - flugelhorn Hubert Laws - piccolo, tenor saxophone Joseph Grimaldi - flute Chick Corea, Don Friedman - piano Attila Zoller - guitar Israel "Cachao" Lopez, Jack Six - bass Carlos "Patato" Valdes - congas Bobby Thomas - percussion Willie Bobo - drums