The world was silent. Its attention-its full, undivided, and sometimes conflicting attention-was focused solely on two men on a lonely gray land.

America sucked in his breath. Japan started chomping hard on his rice. France had dropped his wineglass but was too immersed in the television to mop it up. England had started to pour his tea on the floor. Italy and Romano had pasta halfway to their mouths. Germany simply stared.

Yes, it was a product of two nations who were more-than-likely to blow one another up. But right now, nothing like that mattered. Right now, people forgot their inhibitions.

Right now, all the Nations were watching something that most had dismissed as a dream; something that had been a dream for hundreds of years, ever since they first saw the white moon turn gently in her sphere.

This was something that had been thousands of years in the making.

The soft hiss of the door opening filled the living rooms as one white, booted foot could be seen, and then another. They descended down a ladder and Armstrong paused, one foot above the dusty surface of the moon, almost gearing himself up for the challenge-to be the first man, the first man ever to set foot on a surface other than Earth.

He knew it was ridiculous, but China couldn't stop wondering if the rabbit in the moon was going to appear. Greece and Turkey had put aside their differences (for now) and looked at the same television in awe. Russia had not allowed them to look at the launching, but right now all the Soviet countries were clustered around the tiny black-and-white set.

America, for once, did not move. He could remember the moon lighting his and Canada's way at night, when their mother had been occupied with other things. He could remember the moon when he drove forth westwards, with her light blanching the red dusty rocks of the Grand Canyon. He could remember wanting to pluck it from her place in the sky.

It felt like an age-though it was only a few seconds-before his left foot came down on another world.

In that moment, the world, as if tired of holding in its breath, let it all go at once. Suddenly, cheering started up, so much that Armstrong's words were almost drowned out:

This is one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.

Today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men ever to set foot on the moon.