"That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind."

When you think about it, those famous words — perhaps the most famous words spoken in the last century — don’t make sense.

Clearly, Armstrong was trying to juxtapose an individual "man" with the greater "mankind".  But he left out the "a" before "man", so essentially, he said:

"That’s one small step for mankind; one giant leap for mankind."

When this was pointed out to him upon his return to Earth, Armstrong wasn’t sure if he flubbed the first words spoken on the moon, or whether there might have been a brief "dropout" in communications which made it seem like the "a" was missing.

In his official biography, First Man, Armstrong admitted:

“It doesn’t sound like there was time for the word to be there. On the other hand, I didn’t intentionally make an inane statement . . . certainly the ‘a’ was intended, because that’s the only way the statement makes any sense.”

37 years later, the debate has been resolved.

Armstrong said:

"That’s one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind."