Neil Armstrong, who took a giant leap for mankind when he became the first of a dozen Americans to walk the surface of the moon, died late Saturday night at age 82.u00a0“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” Armstrong said as he stepped onto the lunar surface on July 20, 1969 — words that have become among the most famous ever spoken in the English language.

Armstrong, a reluctant hero He was ‘a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job,’ his family said in a statement. Although he had been a Navy fighter pilot, a test pilot for NASA’s forerunner and an astronaut, the modest Armstrong never allowed himself to be caught up in the celebrity and glamour of the space program.