Souvenir Card, Astronaut Alan Shepard Receiving Distinguished Service Medal from President Kennedy, 1961

Three weeks after astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space on May 5, 1961, President Kennedy laid out a bold vision that America should commit itself to landing a man on the moon "before the decade is out." Many missions followed until, on July 20, 1969--just six months before the end of the decade--American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin A. "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. became the first humans to set foot on the moon.

The first pictorial lunchboxes, introduced in 1950, featured Hopalong Cassidy. Since then, generations of children have proudly sported pictorial images of their favorite interests on the sides of their school lunchboxes. The 1960s were an age of space exploration, beginning with the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in 1957 through the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon in 1969.

The public was enchanted by photographs and inside stories of the Kennedy family. The cover story in this Look magazine featured "An exclusive visit with our new first family." Photographs of young President John F. Kennedy with his attractive family fostered a sense of intimacy between the Kennedys and the American public--and, of course, sold magazines.