Dear US congress: please create a holiday to officially commemorate the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20th.

Many important people and events are commemorated across the US by national holidays. Emancipation Day, Martin Luther King Day, D-Day, National Literacy day and even Columbus Day (however undeserved). But though we mark everything from Flag Day to Alaska Day, a crucial and world changing event still remains unmarked: the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Though NASA called this landing “the greatest technological achievement of all time”, it has no official day of recognition by the US. In fact, many Americans don’t even know its date! July 20th, 1969, should be burned into our minds as an absolutely spectacular feat of technology and science, and yet it is left nearly forgotten. This needs to change.

When the lunar module landed at 4:18 p.m EDT Neil Armstrong reported "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." At 10:56 p.m. EDT Armstrong planted the first human foot on another world. With more than half a billion people watching on television, he climbed down the ladder and proclaimed: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." (› Play Audio)

Buzz Aldrin joins him shortly, and offered a simple yet powerful description of the lunar surface: "magnificent desolation." They explored the surface for two and a half hours, collecting samples, taking photographs and left behind an American flag, a patch honoring the fallen Apollo 1 crew, and a plaque on one of Eagle's legs. It reads, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."

More than 45 years have passed since what Armstrong called the “beginning of a new age," and still no official national holiday. In 1969 Michael Collins talked about future journeys to Mars. Let’s establish the National Moon Landing Day before humankind walks on another planet.