172-535: Joseph "Joe" Gilmore (19 May 1922 – 18 December 2015) was a renowned bartender and famous mixologist during the 20th century. He was Head Barman at The Savoy Hotel 's American Bar from 1954 to 1976 and is recognised as the creator of numerous cocktails to mark special events and important guests, a longstanding tradition at the American Bar. Gilmore's most famous creations include Moonwalk, Link-Up, The Corpse Reviver, Lorraine, and Missouri Mule. Joseph Patrick Gilmore
344-445: A Lyons Corner House as a kitchen hand. Gilmore began his early bartender training at La Coquille, a French restaurant on St Martin's Lane , Covent Garden and The Olde Bell at Hurley. While working at The Olde Bell he met and served Welsh millionaire steel-baron Kenneth Davies and the aviator Amy Johnston . The couple reportedly asked Gilmore for a dry martini, which he attempted unsuccessfully. Despite his attempt being enjoyed by
516-600: A Roman Catholic throughout his life, and died on 18 December 2015, aged 93. Savoy Hotel The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August 1889. It was the first in the Savoy group of hotels and restaurants owned by Carte's family for over
688-666: A naval aviator the following year. He saw action in the Korean War , flying the Grumman F9F Panther from the aircraft carrier USS Essex . After the war, he completed his bachelor's degree at Purdue and became a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He was the project pilot on Century Series fighters and flew
860-614: A rocket-powered aircraft was on August 15, 1957, in the Bell X-1 B, to an altitude of 11.4 miles (18.3 km). On landing, the poorly designed nose landing gear failed, as had happened on about a dozen previous flights of the Bell X-1B. He flew the North American X-15 seven times, including the first flight with the Q-ball system, the first flight of the number 3 X-15 airframe, and
1032-533: A $ 678 raise in pay to $ 21,653 a year (equivalent to $ 203,338 in 2023), making him NASA's highest-paid astronaut. In Armstrong's final assignment in the Gemini program, he was the back-up Command Pilot for Gemini 11 . Having trained for two flights, Armstrong was quite knowledgeable about the systems and took on a teaching role for the rookie backup pilot, William Anders . The launch was on September 12, 1966, with Conrad and Gordon on board, who successfully completed
1204-474: A 10-second pause, Duke acknowledged the landing with, "We copy you down, Eagle ." Armstrong confirmed the landing to Mission Control and the world with the words, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Aldrin and Armstrong celebrated with a brisk handshake and pat on the back. They then returned to the checklist of contingency tasks, should an emergency liftoff become necessary. After Armstrong confirmed touch down, Duke re-acknowledged, adding
1376-644: A Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering in January 1955. In 1970, he completed his Master of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). He would eventually be awarded honorary doctorates by several universities. Armstrong met Janet Elizabeth Shearon, who was majoring in home economics , at a party hosted by Alpha Chi Omega. According to
1548-462: A Sunday brunch, which includes free-flow champagne, and special events, such as New Year's Eve dinner. August Laplanche was head chef at the hotel from 1946 to 1965, Silvino Trompetto was maître-chef from 1965 to 1980, and Anton Edelmann was maître chef des cuisines for 21 years, from 1982 to 2003. As part of the 2010 refurbishment, the restaurant was completely redecorated in the Art Deco style, with
1720-532: A T-33, was to evaluate Smith Ranch Dry Lake in Nevada for use as an emergency landing site for the X-15. In his autobiography, Yeager wrote that he knew the lake bed was unsuitable for landings after recent rains, but Armstrong insisted on flying out anyway. As they attempted a touch-and-go , the wheels became stuck and they had to wait for rescue. As Armstrong told the story, Yeager never tried to talk him out of it and they made
1892-457: A baby elephant brought in a five-foot birthday cake. When the hotel was expanded, Rupert D'Oyly Carte decided to develop a luxurious, handcrafted bed unique to the Savoy and his other hotels. His Savoy Bed, also called the No. 2 Bed, was covered in a ticking whose design is attributed to his stepmother, Helen Carte . In 1924, the hotel bought James Edwards Limited, the manufacturer of the bed. Later,
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#17328548064952064-626: A century. The Savoy was the first hotel in Britain to introduce electric lights throughout the building, electric lifts, bathrooms in most of the lavishly furnished rooms, constant hot and cold running water and many other innovations. Carte hired César Ritz as manager and Auguste Escoffier as chef de cuisine ; they established an unprecedented standard of quality in hotel service, entertainment and elegant dining, attracting royalty and other rich and powerful guests and diners. The hotel became Carte's most successful venture. Its bands, Savoy Orpheans and
2236-475: A comment about the flight crew's relief: "Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We're breathing again. Thanks a lot." During the landing, Armstrong's heart rate ranged from 100 to 150 beats per minute. The flight plan called for a crew rest period before leaving the module, but Armstrong asked for this to be moved to earlier in the evening, Houston time . When he and Aldrin were ready to go outside, Eagle
2408-616: A couple of Pipers , which were kept at nearby Aretz Airport in Lafayette, Indiana . Flying the Aeronca to Wapakoneta in 1954, he damaged it in a rough landing in a farmer's field, and it had to be hauled back to Lafayette on a trailer. He was a baritone player in the Purdue All-American Marching Band . Ten years later he was made an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi national band honorary fraternity. Armstrong graduated with
2580-658: A descendant of Clan Armstrong . He had a younger sister, June, and a younger brother, Dean. His father was an auditor for the Ohio state government , and the family moved around the state repeatedly, living in 16 towns over the next 14 years. Armstrong's love for flying grew during this time, having started at the age of two when his father took him to the Cleveland Air Races . When he was five or six, he experienced his first airplane flight in Warren, Ohio , when he and his father took
2752-533: A fact she regretted later in life. The couple had three children. In June 1961, their daughter Karen was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma , a malignant tumor of the middle part of her brain stem . X-ray treatment slowed its growth, but her health deteriorated to the point where she could no longer walk or talk. She died of pneumonia , related to her weakened health, on January 28, 1962, aged two. Following his graduation from Purdue, Armstrong became an experimental research test pilot. He applied at
2924-466: A few of the celebrities who stayed there in recent decades. Richard Harris lived at the hotel for the last several years of his life. While being carried out on a stretcher before he died, he joked, "It was the food." The Savoy hotel has long been associated with the arts. Whistler stayed in 1896 with his wife Beatrix and painted eight lithograph views of the Thames from his top-floor room. Monet stayed at
3096-499: A few weeks later in Johannesburg. After this, the hotel offered to seat a member of its staff at tables of 13 to ward off bad luck. Finally, in 1926, the designer Basil Ionides sculpted a 3-foot high art-deco black cat called Kaspar, which is used as the 14th guest. Kaspar is given a full place setting, a napkin is tied around his neck, and he is served each course. Winston Churchill liked Ionides's Kaspar so much that he insisted that
3268-417: A first successful landing on the east side of the lake. Then Yeager told him to try again, this time a bit slower. On the second landing, they became stuck, provoking Yeager to fits of laughter. On May 21, 1962, Armstrong was involved in the "Nellis Affair". He was sent in an F-104 to inspect Delamar Dry Lake in southern Nevada, again for emergency landings. He misjudged his altitude and did not realize that
3440-488: A flight simulator expert with whom Armstrong had worked closely at Edwards, saw the late arrival of the application and slipped it into the pile before anyone noticed. At Brooks Air Force Base at the end of June, Armstrong underwent a medical exam that many of the applicants described as painful and at times seemingly pointless. NASA's Director of Flight Crew Operations, Deke Slayton , called Armstrong on September 13, 1962, and asked whether he would be interested in joining
3612-499: A former contestant on the TV show MasterChef: The Professionals , became the Grill's first female head chef. The Thames Foyer serves breakfast, morning coffee, light lunch and supper, as well as afternoon tea, accompanied by the hotel's resident pianist. Also part of the hotel buildings is Simpson's-in-the-Strand , featuring classic British style cuisine. Its specialties are aged Scottish beef on
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#17328548064953784-477: A good education without going all the way to Cambridge, Massachusetts . His college tuition was paid for under the Holloway Plan . Successful applicants committed to two years of study, followed by two years of flight training and one year of service as an aviator in the U.S. Navy , then completion of the final two years of their bachelor's degree . Armstrong did not take courses in naval science, nor did he join
3956-443: A leopard print carpet. In 2013, the restaurant became Kaspar's Seafood Bar & Grill. The menu features oysters, cured and smoked fish. The interior design follows the hotel's 1920s style and its black and green livery, and the room offers views of the Thames and some of London's landmarks. The restaurant is open all day, seven days a week. Reviews for the restaurant have improved since the re-opening: "The smoked and cured fish here
4128-415: A meeting with Slayton. The first thing Slayton said was, "The guys who are going to fly the first lunar missions are the guys in this room." According to Cernan, only Armstrong showed no reaction to the statement. To Armstrong it came as no surprise—the room was full of veterans of Project Gemini, the only people who could fly the lunar missions. Slayton talked about the planned missions and named Armstrong to
4300-416: A no-radio approach. The loss of hydraulic fluid caused the tailhook to release, and upon landing, he caught the arresting wire attached to an anchor chain, and dragged the chain along the runway. It took thirty minutes to clear the runway and rig another arresting cable. Armstrong telephoned Edwards and asked for someone to collect him. Milt Thompson was sent in an F-104B, the only two-seater available, but
4472-477: A plane Thompson had never flown. With great difficulty, Thompson made it to Nellis, where a strong crosswind caused a hard landing and the left main tire suffered a blowout. The runway was again closed to clear it, and Bill Dana was sent to Nellis in a T-33, but he almost landed long. The Nellis base operations office then decided that to avoid any further problems, it would be best to find the three NASA pilots ground transport back to Edwards. In June 1958, Armstrong
4644-520: A pole, which sliced off 2 feet (0.61 m) of the Panther's right wing. Further perversions of the story by different authors added that he was only 20 feet (6.1 m) from the ground and that 3 feet (0.91 m) of his wing was sheared off. Armstrong flew the plane back to friendly territory, but because of the loss of the aileron , ejection was his only safe option. He intended to eject over water and await rescue by Navy helicopters, but his parachute
4816-548: A proposed two-man spacecraft. This time, selection was open to qualified civilian test pilots. Armstrong visited the Seattle World's Fair in May 1962 and attended a conference there on space exploration that was co-sponsored by NASA. After he returned from Seattle on June 4, he applied to become an astronaut. His application arrived about a week past the June 1, 1962, deadline, but Dick Day,
4988-590: A ride in a Ford Trimotor (also known as the "Tin Goose"). The family's last move was in 1944 and took them back to Wapakoneta, where Armstrong attended Blume High School and took flying lessons at the Wapakoneta airfield. He earned a student flight certificate on his 16th birthday, then soloed in August, all before he had a driver's license. He was an active Boy Scout and earned the rank of Eagle Scout . As an adult, he
5160-415: A school to train hoteliers, that was maintained for half a century. The last major appointments of Rupert D'Oyly Carte's chairmanship were Wyllie Adolf Hofflin, general manager from 1941 to 1960, and August Laplanche, head chef from 1946 to 1965. When Carte died in 1948, his daughter Bridget did not wish to become chairman, accepting instead the vice-chairman position, and the Savoy board elected Wontner,
5332-566: A shareholder and sat on the board of directors. The hotel was built on a plot of land, next to the Savoy Theatre, that Carte originally purchased to house an electrical generator for the theatre (built in 1881), which was the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity. The construction of the hotel took five years and was financed by the profits from the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership, particularly from The Mikado . It
Joe Gilmore - Misplaced Pages Continue
5504-403: A week. In 1954, Gilmore took over as head bartender at The Savoy's, American Bar. Over the following two decades Gilmore created new cocktails, especially to honour special occasions and important guests, including Princess Diana , Prince William , Anne, The Princess Royal , The Queen Mother , Sir Winston Churchill , and American Presidents Harry S. Truman and Richard Nixon . For much of
5676-513: Is Edwardian on the Thames river side and Art Deco on the Strand side. Butler service was also reintroduced to the hotel. Gordon Ramsay manages the Savoy Grill with Stuart Gillies as Chef Director and Andy Cook as Head Chef. In a nod to the hotel's origins, six private dining rooms are named after Gilbert and Sullivan operas. The hotel contains a small museum next to the American Bar, open to
5848-580: Is also known as the Four Score and Ten. Created for Sir Winston Churchill on one of his many visits to The Savoy. Created to mark Britain’s entry into the European Economic Community in 1973, using drinks from all the member states. Created for Sir Winston Churchill ’s eightieth birthday. Created in 1973 to commemorate the wedding of Princess Anne to Captain Mark Phillips . Doublet
6020-510: Is bigger and grander, and JUST THE SAME." A review in The Guardian noted that reception "now is sheer sleight of hand. ... In under five minutes I have been expertly drawn into the world of Savoy. [Furniture and furnishings] conspire to enhance my stay". While the same reviewer found the spa disappointing, she gave highest marks to the hotel's personalised service, the Savoy Tea, afternoon tea in
6192-608: Is going on in the U.S.A., in Canada, in the Argentine and in Europe." In 1938 Hugh Wontner joined the Savoy hotel group as Reeves-Smith's assistant, and he became managing director in 1941. During World War II, Wontner and his staff had to cope with bomb damage, food rationing, manpower shortage and a serious decline in the number of foreign visitors. After the US entered the war, business picked up as
6364-414: Is the omelette Arnold Bennett , created by the chef Jean Baptiste Virlogeux . Under Ritz and Escoffier, evening dress was required in the restaurant, and Ritz was innovative in hiring popular musicians to play background music during dinner and in printing daily menus. Even today, elegant dining at the Savoy includes formal afternoon tea with choral and other performances at Christmastime. The Savoy has
6536-460: Is to die for, and a whole roast sea bream for two was simply brilliant." Since Ramsay employed his former protégé Marcus Wareing in the less formal Savoy Grill, the restaurant earned its first Michelin star . The Grill was originally "where people go to eat a modest luncheon or to dine on the way to the theatre without spending too much time or too much money". Since 2010, the chef patron has been Stuart Gillies . From 2015 to 2017, Kim Woodward,
6708-946: The London Evening Standard . Numerous notable guests have stayed at the hotel. Claude Monet and James Whistler both painted or drew views, from their Savoy rooms, of the River Thames . The Savoy featured prominently in guest Oscar Wilde 's trial for gross indecency . Other celebrity guests in the hotel's early decades included the future King Edward VII , Sarah Bernhardt , Enrico Caruso , Lillie Langtry , H. G. Wells , George Bernard Shaw , Nellie Melba , Charlie Chaplin , Al Jolson , Errol Flynn , Fred Astaire , Marlene Dietrich , Lionel Barrymore , Harry Truman , Audrey Hepburn , Judy Garland , Josephine Baker , Cary Grant , Babe Ruth , Ivor Novello and Noël Coward . The hotel kept records of its guests' preferences, so that it could provide for them in advance. For Coward,
6880-761: The Air Medal for 20 combat missions, two gold stars for the next 40, the Korean Service Medal and Engagement Star, the National Defense Service Medal , and the United Nations Korea Medal . Armstrong's regular commission was terminated on February 25, 1952, and he became an ensign in the United States Navy Reserve . On completion of his combat tour with Essex , he was assigned to a transport squadron, VR-32, in May 1952. He
7052-697: The Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1979, and with his former crewmates received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. After he resigned from NASA in 1971, Armstrong taught in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati until 1979. He served on the Apollo 13 accident investigation and on
Joe Gilmore - Misplaced Pages Continue
7224-629: The Convair F-106 Delta Dart . He also flew the Douglas DC-3 , Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star , North American F-86 Sabre , McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II , Douglas F5D-1 Skylancer , Boeing B-29 Superfortress, Boeing B-47 Stratojet and Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker , and was one of eight elite pilots involved in the Parasev paraglider research vehicle program. Over his career, he flew more than 200 different models of aircraft. His first flight in
7396-530: The Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969, at 13:32:00 UTC (09:32:00 EDT local time). Armstrong's wife Janet and two sons watched from a yacht moored on the Banana River . During the launch, Armstrong's heart rate peaked at 110 beats per minute. He found the first stage the loudest, much noisier than the Gemini 8 Titan II launch. The Apollo command module was relatively roomy compared with
7568-462: The London Metal Exchange . "Wolfram" is another name for the element tungsten . Gilmore married Marie Jeanne Zambelli in 1943. They had three sons. During The Blitz , Gilmore took on the role as a fire warden on the roof of The Savoy. Gilmore never returned to Ireland, but "... never forgot his Irish roots or family background and never lost his soft Belfast accent." He remained
7740-530: The Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston. The mission was generally successful, despite a problem with the fuel cells that prevented a rendezvous. Cooper and Conrad practiced a "phantom rendezvous", carrying out the maneuver without a target. The crews for Gemini 8 were assigned on September 20, 1965. Under the normal rotation system, the backup crew for one mission became the prime crew for
7912-553: The NASA Astronaut Corps as part of what the press dubbed "the New Nine "; without hesitation, Armstrong said yes. The selections were kept secret until three days later, although newspaper reports had circulated since earlier that year that he would be selected as the "first civilian astronaut". Armstrong was one of two civilian pilots selected for this group; the other was Elliot See , another former naval aviator. NASA selected
8084-698: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station at Edwards Air Force Base. NACA had no open positions, and forwarded his application to the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland , where Armstrong made his first test flight on March 1, 1955. Armstrong's stint at Cleveland lasted only a couple of months before a position at the High-Speed Flight Station became available, and he reported for work there on July 11, 1955. On his first day, Armstrong
8256-742: The Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps . Armstrong's call-up from the Navy arrived on January 26, 1949, requiring him to report to Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida for flight training with class 5-49. After passing the medical examinations, he became a midshipman on February 24, 1949. Flight training was conducted in a North American SNJ trainer , in which he soloed on September 9, 1949. On March 2, 1950, he made his first aircraft carrier landing on USS Cabot , an achievement he considered comparable to his first solo flight. He
8428-562: The North American X-15 seven times. He was also a participant in the U.S. Air Force 's Man in Space Soonest and X-20 Dyna-Soar human spaceflight programs. Armstrong joined the NASA Astronaut Corps in the second group , which was selected in 1962. He made his first spaceflight as command pilot of Gemini 8 in March 1966, becoming NASA 's first civilian astronaut to fly in space. During this mission with pilot David Scott , he performed
8600-524: The Rogers Commission , which investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster . In 2012, Armstrong died because of complications resulting from coronary bypass surgery , at the age of 82. Armstrong was born near Wapakoneta, Ohio , on August 5, 1930, the son of Viola Louise (née Engel) and Stephen Koenig Armstrong. He was of German, English, Scots-Irish, and Scottish descent. He is
8772-679: The Savoy Chapel . The property sat empty until the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte bought it in 1880, to build the Savoy Theatre specifically for the production of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, of which he was the producer. Having seen the opulence of American hotels during his many visits to the United States, Carte decided to build a luxury hotel in Britain, to attract a foreign clientele as well as British visitors to London. Opened in 1889,
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#17328548064958944-528: The Savoy Havana Band , became famous, and other entertainers (who were also often guests) included George Gershwin , Frank Sinatra , Lena Horne and Noël Coward . Other famous guests have included Edward VII , Oscar Wilde , Enrico Caruso , Charlie Chaplin , Babe Ruth , Harry Truman , Joan Crawford , Judy Garland , John Wayne , Laurence Olivier , Marilyn Monroe , Humphrey Bogart , Elizabeth Taylor , Barbra Streisand , Bob Dylan , Bette Midler ,
9116-592: The Second World War . The Missouri mule cocktail was created for President Harry S Truman . The cocktail commemorates Truman's home state of Missouri and the donkey mascot of the Democratic Party (a mule is a hybrid of a donkey and a horse). Created in 1969 to mark the first human Moon landing . The cocktail was the first drink the American astronauts had when they returned to Earth. A letter of thanks
9288-476: The Tower of London lined the entrance staircase. The interior of the Savoy was decked in hundreds of yards of dove-grey material and heraldic banners in scarlet, blue and yellow. The design was supervised by Bridget D'Oyly Carte, whose fellow organisers included Cecil Beaton and Ninette de Valois . The cabaret was under the direction of Laurence Olivier , Noël Coward and John Mills . Under Wontner's leadership,
9460-571: The United States and the Soviet Union . The cocktail is a shaken combination of Southern Comfort, Russian vodka, and a teaspoon of lime juice. When the astronauts were told the cocktail was being flown out from London to be enjoyed upon their return, they said, "Tell Joe we want it up here". When the breathalyser was introduced in Britain, Gilmore was interviewed on NBC in New York. He was asked if
9632-483: The "Moonwalk", to commemorate the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The cocktail is a combination of grapefruit juice, orange liqueur and rose water, topped with champagne. This was the first drink astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had upon returning to Earth. In 1975 he created the "Link-Up" to celebrate the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project , the first crewed international space mission carried out jointly by
9804-482: The "a" was inaudible due to the limitations of communications technology of the time. Ford and James R. Hansen , Armstrong's authorized biographer, presented these findings to Armstrong and NASA representatives, who conducted their own analysis. Armstrong found Ford's analysis "persuasive." Linguists David Beaver and Mark Liberman wrote of their skepticism of Ford's claims on the blog Language Log . A 2016 peer-reviewed study again concluded Armstrong had included
9976-456: The 2010 renovation, specialising in champagne as well as cocktails. Decorated in an Art Deco design of jet-black and gold, it offers a nightly cabaret. In 1930, the Savoy Hotel first published its cocktail book, The Savoy Cocktail Book , with 750 recipes compiled by Harry Craddock of the American Bar and Art Deco "decorations" by Gilbert Rumbold. The book has remained in print since then and
10148-635: The 20th century, The Savoy's American Bar was an exclusive meeting place for the rich and powerful of Britain and the world. In addition to serving five generations of royals at private receptions and parties, Gilmore frequently served Winston Churchill , Errol Flynn , Laurel and Hardy , Charlie Chaplin , Dwight D. Eisenhower , Grace Kelly , George Bernard Shaw , Ernest Hemingway , Noël Coward , Agatha Christie , Alice Faye , Ingrid Bergman , Julie Andrews , Laurence Olivier , Joan Crawford , Judy Garland , Liza Minnelli , Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra . During World War II , Winston Churchill frequented
10320-536: The 21st century. For example, in 2012, the British artist, David Downes, worked in the hotel's lobby to create a large-scale drawing, displayed in the hotel's front hall, depicting the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant . The following year, South African artist Jonty Hurwitz created a chrome and resin anamorphic sculpture of Kaspar, the hotel's cat mascot, titled "The 14th Guest", found at the entrance to
10492-462: The American Bar regularly. He had his own entrance and kept his own large bottle of Black & White whisky behind the bar. When Gilmore created a cocktail in his honour, Churchill gave him one of his cigars. Gilmore was a goodwill ambassador for The Savoy at the time, which lead him on numerous trips throughout Europe, the United States and Canada, and regularly appeared on radio and TV chat shows. In 1969, he created one of his most famous cocktails,
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#173285480649510664-410: The Australian singer Nellie Melba , and in 1897, Melba toast . Other Escoffier creations were bombe Néro (a flaming ice), fraises à la Sarah Bernhardt (strawberries with pineapple and Curaçao sorbet), baisers de Vierge (meringue with vanilla cream and crystallised white rose and violet petals) and suprêmes de volailles Jeannette (jellied chicken breasts with foie gras). Another signature dish
10836-427: The B-29 could not land with the Skyrocket attached to its belly. Armstrong and Butchart brought the aircraft into a nose-down attitude to increase speed, then launched the Skyrocket. At the instant of launch, the number-four engine propeller disintegrated. Pieces of it damaged the number-three engine and hit the number-two engine. Butchart and Armstrong were forced to shut down the damaged number-three engine, along with
11008-620: The Beatles and many others. Winston Churchill often took his cabinet to lunch at the hotel. The hotel is managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts . It has been called "London's most famous hotel". It has 267 guest rooms and panoramic views of the River Thames across Savoy Place and the Thames Embankment . The hotel is a Grade II listed building. The House of Savoy was the ruling family of Savoy , descended from Humbert I, Count of Sabaudia (or "Maurienne"), who became count in 1032. The name Sabaudia evolved into "Savoy" (or "Savoie"). Count Peter (or Piers or Piero ) of Savoy (d. 1268)
11180-401: The Gemini spacecraft. None of the Apollo 11 crew suffered space sickness , as some members of previous crews had. Armstrong was especially glad about this, as he had been prone to motion sickness as a child and could experience nausea after long periods of aerobatics . Apollo 11's objective was to land safely on the Moon, rather than to touch down at a precise location. Three minutes into
11352-421: The Georgetown Inn, where they each found messages to phone the MSC. During these calls, they learned of the deaths of Gus Grissom , Ed White and Roger Chaffee in the fire. Armstrong and the group spent the rest of the night drinking scotch and discussing what had happened. On April 5, 1967, the same day the Apollo 1 investigation released its final report, Armstrong and 17 other astronauts gathered for
11524-493: The LLRV began rolling . He ejected safely before the vehicle struck the ground and burst into flames. Later analysis suggested that if he had ejected half a second later, his parachute would not have opened in time. His only injury was from biting his tongue. The LLRV was completely destroyed. Even though he was nearly killed, Armstrong maintained that without the LLRV and LLTV, the lunar landings would not have been successful, as they gave commanders essential experience in piloting
11696-427: The LM on its descent, NASA commissioned Bell Aircraft to build two Lunar Landing Research Vehicles (LLRV), later augmented with three Lunar Landing Training Vehicles (LLTV). Nicknamed the "Flying Bedsteads", they simulated the Moon's one-sixth gravity using a turbofan engine to support five-sixths of the craft's weight. On May 6, 1968, 100 feet (30 m) above the ground, Armstrong's controls started to degrade and
11868-489: The MH-96 control system when he flew to a height of over 207,000 feet (63 km) (the highest he flew before Gemini 8 ). He held up the aircraft nose during its descent to demonstrate the MH-96's g-limiting performance, and the X-15 ballooned back up to around 140,000 feet (43 km). He flew past the landing field at Mach 3 at over 100,000 feet (30 km) in altitude, and ended up 40 miles (64 km) south of Edwards. After sufficient descent, he turned back toward
12040-487: The Moon is unclear. Armstrong prepared his famous epigram on his own. In a post-flight press conference, he said that he chose the words "just prior to leaving the LM." In a 1983 interview in Esquire magazine, he explained to George Plimpton : "I always knew there was a good chance of being able to return to Earth, but I thought the chances of a successful touch down on the moon surface were about even money—fifty–fifty ... Most people don't realize how difficult
12212-493: The Moon. According to Armstrong's 2005 biography, Slayton told him that although the planned crew was Commander Armstrong, Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin, and Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, he was offering Armstrong the chance to replace Aldrin with Jim Lovell. After thinking it over for a day, Armstrong told Slayton he would stick with Aldrin, as he had no difficulty working with him and thought Lovell deserved his own command. Replacing Aldrin with Lovell would have made Lovell
12384-460: The Navy, Armstrong returned to Purdue. His previously earned good but not outstanding grades now improved, lifting his final Grade Point Average (GPA) to a respectable but not outstanding 4.8 out of 6.0. He pledged the Phi Delta Theta fraternity , and lived in its fraternity house. He wrote and co-directed two musicals as part of the all-student revue. The first was a version of Snow White and
12556-532: The OAMS. Mission rules dictated that once this system was turned on, the spacecraft had to reenter at the next possible opportunity. It was later thought that damaged wiring caused one of the thrusters to stick in the on position. A few people in the Astronaut Office, including Walter Cunningham , felt that Armstrong and Scott "had botched their first mission". There was speculation that Armstrong could have salvaged
12728-516: The Orpheans, continuing until 1950 when he became the hotel's Director of Entertainments until his death in 1954. Lena Horne and others made their British debuts there. Frank Sinatra , who regularly stayed at the hotel, played the piano and sang there. The 1960s and 1970s saw cabaret appearances from artists including Cilla Black , Sandie Shaw and The New Seekers . Traditional dinner, dancing and cabaret evenings came to an end in 1980. But in 2013,
12900-596: The Savoy Group sold the company, which became Savoir Beds in 1997. Savoir Beds continues to make the Savoy Bed for the hotel. 1899, Guccio Gucci worked at the Savoy as a luggage porter before founding his fashion house in 1921. After the death of Helen Carte in 1913, Rupert D'Oyly Carte became the controlling stockholder of the hotel group. In 1919, he sold the Grand Hotel, Rome, which his father had acquired in 1894 at
13072-413: The Savoy Theatre. The new Beaufort Bar has an Art Deco interior of jet-black and gold and offers nightly cabaret. The River Restaurant (now renamed Kaspar's), facing the Thames, is also decorated in the Art Deco style, but the American Bar is nearly unchanged. The rooms are decorated in period styles harmonised with the adjacent hallways, and they retain built-in wardrobes and bedroom cabinets. The decor
13244-514: The Savoy appointed its first British head chef, Silvino Trompetto, who was maître-chef from 1965 to 1980. Giles Shepard (1937–2006), succeeded Wontner as managing director from 1979 to 1994 and helped to defend the Savoy Group against Charles Forte 's attempt to take control of the Board in the 1980s. Forte gained a majority of the shares, but was unable to take control due to the company's ownership structure. Shepard also introduced competitive salaries for
13416-465: The Savoy became a favourite of American officers, diplomats, journalists and others. The hotel became a meeting place for war leaders: Winston Churchill often took his cabinet to lunch at the hotel, Lord Mountbatten , Charles de Gaulle , Jan Masaryk and General Wavell were among the regular Grill Room diners, and the hotel's air-raid shelters were "the smartest in London". Wontner cooperated fully with
13588-455: The Savoy hotel group in 1903 and supervised the expansion of the hotel and the modernisation of the other hotels in the group's ownership, such as Claridge's . The expansion of the hotel in 1903–04 included new east and west wings, and moving the main entrance to Savoy Court off the Strand. The additions pioneered the use of steel frame construction in London. At that time, the hotel added Britain's first serviced apartments, with access to all
13760-452: The Savoy hotel group. They sold it in 2004 to Quinlan Private , who sold the Savoy hotel and restaurant Simpson's-In-The-Strand eight months later, for an estimated £ 250 million, to Al-Waleed bin Talal to be managed by Al-Waleed's affiliate, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts of Canada. Quinlan's group retained the rest of the hotels under the name Maybourne Hotel Group . In December 2007,
13932-601: The Seven Dwarfs , co-directed with his girlfriend Joanne Alford from the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, with songs from the 1937 Walt Disney film , including " Someday My Prince Will Come "; the second was titled The Land of Egelloc ("college" spelled backward), with music from Gilbert and Sullivan but new lyrics. Armstrong was chairman of the Purdue Aero Flying Club, and flew the club's aircraft, an Aeronca and
14104-517: The Strand, The River Restaurant (formerly known as Kaspars, and before that the Savoy Restaurant), on the south side, overlooking the River Thames, and Restaurant 1890. The River Restaurant has long been famous for its inventive chefs, beginning in 1890, with the celebrity chef Auguste Escoffier. Escoffier created many famous dishes at the Savoy. In 1893, he invented the pêche Melba in honour of
14276-526: The Thames Foyer, and the Beaufort bar, concluding: "The Savoy is back where it belongs – right on top." The Savoy Grill, however, lost its Michelin star and reopened to mixed reviews. Three years after the reopening, the owners announced that business had been disappointing, and the hotel was in jeopardy of closing. The hotel celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2014, at which time it received a glowing review from
14448-406: The alarms were not a concern; the 1202 and 1201 alarms were caused by executive overflows in the lunar module guidance computer . In 2007, Aldrin said the overflows were caused by his own counter-checklist choice of leaving the docking radar on during the landing process, causing the computer to process unnecessary radar data. When it did not have enough time to execute all tasks, the computer dropped
14620-420: The backup crew for Apollo 9 , which at that stage was planned as a medium Earth orbit test of the combined lunar module and command and service module . The crew was officially assigned on November 20, 1967. For crewmates, Armstrong was assigned Lovell and Aldrin, from Gemini 12. After design and manufacturing delays of the lunar module (LM), Apollo 8 and 9 swapped prime and backup crews. Based on
14792-430: The backup crew of Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan , while Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin moved up from the backup crew of Gemini 10 to become the backup for Gemini 9, and would eventually fly Gemini 12 . Gemini 8 launched on March 16, 1966. It was the most complex mission yet, with a rendezvous and docking with an uncrewed Agena target vehicle , and the planned second American spacewalk ( EVA ) by Scott. The mission
14964-579: The best-known bands in Europe", and they broadcast regularly from the hotel. The BBC , which had set up its Savoy Hill studios next to the hotel in 1922, took full advantage of the proximity. George Gershwin gave the British premiere of Rhapsody in Blue at the hotel in 1925, simultaneously broadcast on BBC radio. Rupert D'Oyly Carte engaged Richard Collet to run the cabaret at the Savoy, which opened in April 1929. In 1931 Carroll Gibbons took over as leader of
15136-478: The birth of Prince Andrew . Created by Joe Gilmore at the Atlantic Hotel , Hamburg , Germany . Created for The Queen Mother on one of her private visits to The Savoy. The Corpse Revivers are a series of hangover cures invented during prohibition. This recipe is a variation invented by Gilmore in 1954. Created in 1990 to commemorate the election of John Wolff Director of Rudolf Wolff as Chairman of
15308-406: The bone, potted shrimps, roast saddle of lamb and steak and kidney pie. In February 2022 Ramsay opened Restaurant 1890 in the hotel. In February 2024 it was awarded a Michelin star. The American Bar at the Savoy Hotel was one of the earliest establishments to introduce American-style cocktails to Europe. The term American Bar was used in London to designate the sale of American cocktails from
15480-449: The cab himself. Additionally, the hotel entrance's small roundabout meant that vehicles needed a turning circle of 25 feet (7.6 m) to navigate it. This is still the legally required turning circle for all London cabs . 51°30′35.633″N 0°7′12.774″W / 51.50989806°N 0.12021500°W / 51.50989806; -0.12021500 Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012)
15652-463: The couple, Davies and Johnston politely demonstrated the correct way to make a dry martini. Gilmore cited this interaction as the spark that fuelled his passion of cocktail mixology. After this first encounter, Davies and Gilmore became life long friends. Gilmore first began working at The Savoy as a commis waiter at The American Bar. By 1940, aged 18, he was promoted to trainee barman and began his apprenticeship with Harry Craddock , earning £ 3.10 s
15824-694: The couple, there was no real courtship, and neither could remember the exact circumstances of their engagement. They were married on January 28, 1956, at the Congregational Church in Wilmette, Illinois . When he moved to Edwards Air Force Base , he lived in the bachelor quarters of the base, while Janet lived in the Westwood district of Los Angeles. After one semester, they moved into a house in Antelope Valley , near Edwards AFB. Janet did not finish her degree,
15996-591: The exploits of the Brazilian-born aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont . On January 27, 1967—the day of the Apollo 1 fire —Armstrong was in Washington, D.C., with Cooper, Gordon, Lovell and Scott Carpenter for the signing of the United Nations Outer Space Treaty . The astronauts chatted with the assembled dignitaries until 18:45, when Carpenter went to the airport, and the others returned to
16168-567: The facts became public knowledge. The Savoy group purchased Simpson's-in-the-Strand in 1898. The next year, Carte engaged M. Joseph, proprietor of the Marivaux Restaurant in Paris, as his new maître d'hôtel and in 1900, appointed George Reeves-Smith as the next managing director of the Savoy hotel group. Reeves-Smith served in this capacity until 1941. After Richard D'Oyly Carte died in 1901, his son Rupert D'Oyly Carte became chairman of
16340-477: The film Kipps , based on the novel by H. G. Wells . It also featured in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Entrapment (1999) and Gambit (2012), among others. In 2011, the hotel was used as the setting for Duran Duran 's music video for their song " Girl Panic! " from their album All You Need Is Now . Arnold Bennett wrote the novel Imperial Palace in 1930, based on his research at
16512-511: The first docking of two spacecraft ; the mission was aborted after Armstrong used some of his re-entry control fuel to stabilize a dangerous roll caused by a stuck thruster. During training for Armstrong's second and last spaceflight as commander of Apollo 11 , he had to eject from the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle moments before a crash. On July 20, 1969, Armstrong and Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) pilot Buzz Aldrin became
16684-403: The first American civilian in space. ( Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union had become the first civilian—and first woman—nearly three years earlier aboard Vostok 6 when it launched on June 16, 1963. ) Armstrong would also be the last of his group to fly in space, as See died in a T-38 crash on February 28, 1966, that also took the life of crewmate Charles Bassett . They were replaced by
16856-568: The first flight of the MH-96 adaptive flight control system. He became an employee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) when it was established on October 1, 1958, absorbing NACA. Armstrong was involved in several incidents that went down in Edwards folklore or were chronicled in the memoirs of colleagues. During his sixth X-15 flight on April 20, 1962, Armstrong was testing
17028-623: The first people to land on the Moon , and the next day they spent two and a half hours outside the Lunar Module Eagle spacecraft while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the Apollo Command Module Columbia . When Armstrong first stepped onto the lunar surface, he famously said: "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." It was broadcast live to an estimated 530 million viewers worldwide. Apollo 11
17200-451: The first person on the Moon, in part because NASA management saw him as a person who did not have a large ego. A press conference on April 14, 1969, gave the design of the LM cabin as the reason for Armstrong's being first; the hatch opened inwards and to the right, making it difficult for the LM pilot, on the right-hand side, to exit first. At the time of their meeting, the four men did not know about
17372-579: The first person to combine the roles of chairman and managing director since the Savoy's founder, Richard D'Oyly Carte. Wontner remained managing director until 1979 and chairman until 1984, and he was president thereafter until 1992. To mark Queen Elizabeth II 's coronation on 2 June 1953, the hotel hosted the Savoy Coronation Ball, attended by 1,400 people, including Hollywood stars, royalty and other notables, who paid 12 guineas (equivalent to £444 as of 2023), each. Sixteen Yeomen Warders from
17544-453: The government's wartime restrictions, helping to draw up an order imposing a five-shilling limit on the price of a restaurant meal. After World War II, the Savoy Group experienced a strike of its employees in support of a waiter dismissed from the hotel. The matter was judged so serious that the government set up a court of inquiry. Nevertheless, the hotel continued to attract celebrities. In 1946, Wontner set up "The Savoy Management Scheme",
17716-487: The ground, the docked spacecraft began to roll, and Armstrong attempted to correct this with the Gemini's Orbit Attitude and Maneuvering System (OAMS). Following the earlier advice of Mission Control, they undocked, but the roll increased dramatically until they were turning about once per second, indicating a problem with Gemini's attitude control . Armstrong engaged the Reentry Control System (RCS) and turned off
17888-526: The hatch consideration. The first knowledge of the meeting outside the small group came when Kraft wrote his book. Methods of circumventing this difficulty existed, but it is not known if these were considered at the time. Slayton added, "Secondly, just on a pure protocol basis, I figured the commander ought to be the first guy out ... I changed it as soon as I found they had the time line that showed that. Bob Gilruth approved my decision." A Saturn V rocket launched Apollo 11 from Launch Complex 39A at
18060-412: The hospital was being misused by "loiterers, vagabonds and strumpets". In 1702, the hospital was dissolved, and the hospital buildings were used for other purposes. Part of the old palace was used as a military prison in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century, the old hospital buildings were demolished, and new buildings were erected. In 1864, a fire burned everything except the stone walls and
18232-473: The hotel closed for a complete renovation, the cost of which was budgeted at £100 million. The hotel conducted a sale of 3,000 pieces of its famous furnishings and memorabilia. The projected reopening date was delayed more than a year to October 2010, as structural and system problems held up construction. The building's façade required extensive stabilisation, and the cost of the renovations grew to £220 million. The new energy-efficient design reduced
18404-486: The hotel on three occasions in 1899, 1900 and 1901, and served as the hotel's first artist-in-residence. He worked on paintings there including views of Charing Cross Bridge (1899–1901) and Waterloo Bridge (1903). 26 pastels survive from his visits to the hotel. A study in 2010 concluded that Monet had stayed in rooms 610–611 in 1899 and later in 510–511, although the Savoy markets rooms 512 and 513 as their "Monet Suite". The artist-in residence position has continued in
18576-406: The hotel reintroduced its dinner dances, with resident dance band Alex Mendham & His Orchestra playing music from the 1920s and '30s. The hotel has often been used as a film location. For example, the romantic finale to Notting Hill (1999) is set in the hotel's Lancaster Room, where Anna ( Julia Roberts ) and William ( Hugh Grant ) declare their mutual love. In 1921, the hotel was used in
18748-454: The hotel was designed by architect Thomas Edward Collcutt , who also designed the Wigmore Hall . Carte chose the name "Savoy" to commemorate the history of the property. His investors in the venture were, in addition to his relatives, Carl Rosa , George Grossmith , François Cellier , George Edwardes , Augustus Harris and Fanny Ronalds . His friend, the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan , was
18920-577: The hotel's amenities. Many famous figures became residents, such as Sarah Bernhardt and Sir Thomas Dewar , some of whom lived there for decades. Spectacular parties were held at the hotel. For example, in 1905 the American millionaire George A. Kessler hosted a "Gondola Party" where the central courtyard was flooded to a depth of four feet, and scenery was erected around the walls. Costumed staff and guests re-created Venice. The two dozen guests dined in an enormous gondola. After dinner, Enrico Caruso sang, and
19092-482: The hotel's electricity usage by approximately 50% and reuse and recycling increased. The new design features a Thames Foyer with a winter garden gazebo under a stained-glass cupola with natural light, which is the venue for late-night dining and the hotel's famous afternoon tea. The glass dome had been covered since World War II. A new teashop and patisserie is called Savoy Tea, and a glass-enclosed fitness gallery with rooftop swimming pool, gym and spa are located above
19264-404: The hotel's restaurant, Kaspar's Seafood Bar & Grill. Kaspar's story begins with the legend of an 1898 dinner at the Savoy given for 14 guests by Woolf Joel, a South African diamond tycoon. One of the diners was unable to attend, leaving the number of guests an unlucky 13, and another diner predicted that whoever first left the table would soon die. The first to leave was Joel, who was shot dead
19436-520: The hotel. Frank Sinatra , Marilyn Monroe , John Wayne , Louis Armstrong , Humphrey Bogart , Elizabeth Taylor , Richard Burton , Maria Callas , Coco Chanel , Christian Dior , Sophia Loren , Julie Andrews , Lena Horne , Marlon Brando , Jane Fonda , Barbra Streisand , Jimi Hendrix , the Beatles , Elton John , U2 , Led Zeppelin , the Who , George Clooney , Whoopi Goldberg and Stephen Fry are just
19608-403: The hotel. The novel fictionalises the hotel's operations. Michael Morpurgo wrote a children's book fictionalising the hotel's mascot, Kaspar, as an adventurer: Kaspar: Prince of Cats (2008), which was released in the US as Kaspar: The Titanic Cat (2012). The hotel has three restaurants, all managed by Gordon Ramsay : the Savoy Grill, on the north side of the building, with its entrance off
19780-530: The kitchens. The Savoy under Ritz and his partners soon attracted distinguished and wealthy clientele, headed by the Prince of Wales . Aristocratic women, hitherto unaccustomed to dining in public, were now "seen in full regalia in the Savoy dining and supper rooms". The hotel became such a financial success that Carte bought other luxury hotels. At the same time, Ritz continued to manage his own hotels and businesses in Europe. Nellie Melba, among others, noted that Ritz
19952-444: The landing area, and landed. It was the longest X-15 flight in both flight time and length of the ground track. Fellow astronaut Michael Collins wrote that of the X-15 pilots Armstrong "had been considered one of the weaker stick-and-rudder men, but the very best when it came to understanding the machine's design and how it operated". Many of the test pilots at Edwards praised Armstrong's engineering ability. Milt Thompson said he
20124-399: The landing gear had not fully extended. As he touched down, the landing gear began to retract; Armstrong applied full power to abort the landing, but the ventral fin and landing gear door struck the ground, damaging the radio and releasing hydraulic fluid . Without radio communication, Armstrong flew south to Nellis Air Force Base , past the control tower, and waggled his wings, the signal for
20296-401: The late 19th century. The head barmen , in chronological order, have been as follows: The American Bar is decorated in a warm Art Deco design, with cream and ochre walls, and electric blue and gold chairs. The walls feature the photos of famous guests. A pianist plays classic American jazz every day on a baby grand piano in the centre of the room. The Beaufort Bar is a new bar created in
20468-533: The left-hand pilot seat flying the B-29. As they climbed to 30,000 feet (9 km), the number-four engine stopped and the propeller began windmilling (rotating freely) in the airstream. Hitting the switch that would stop the propeller's spinning, Butchart watched it slow, then resume spinning even faster than the others; if it spun too fast, it would break apart. Their aircraft needed to hold an airspeed of 210 mph (338 km/h) to launch its Skyrocket payload, and
20640-545: The lower-priority ones, triggering the alarms. Aldrin said he decided to leave the radar on in case an abort was necessary when re-docking with the Apollo command module; he did not realize it would cause the processing overflows. When Armstrong noticed they were heading toward a landing area that seemed unsafe, he took manual control of the LM and attempted to find a safer area. This took longer than expected, and longer than most simulations had taken. For this reason, Mission Control
20812-564: The lunar descent, Armstrong noted that craters were passing about two seconds too early, which meant the Lunar Module Eagle would probably touch down several miles (kilometres) beyond the planned landing zone. As the Eagle ' s landing radar acquired the surface, several computer error alarms sounded. The first was a code 1202 alarm, and even with their extensive training, neither Armstrong nor Aldrin knew what this code meant. They promptly received word from CAPCOM Charles Duke in Houston that
20984-513: The lunar landing craft. In addition to the LLRV training, NASA began lunar landing simulator training after Apollo 10 was completed. Aldrin and Armstrong trained for a variety of scenarios that could develop during a real lunar landing. They also received briefings from geologists at NASA. After Armstrong served as backup commander for Apollo 8, Slayton offered him the post of commander of Apollo 11 on December 23, 1968, as Apollo 8 orbited
21156-471: The lunar module pilot, unofficially the lowest ranked member, and Armstrong could not justify placing Lovell, the commander of Gemini 12, in the number 3 position of the crew. The crew of Apollo 11 was assigned on January 9, 1969, as Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin, with Lovell, Anders, and Fred Haise as the backup crew. According to Chris Kraft , a March 1969 meeting among Slayton, George Low, Bob Gilruth , and Kraft determined that Armstrong would be
21328-529: The mission if he had turned on only one of the two RCS rings, saving the other for mission objectives. These criticisms were unfounded; no malfunction procedures had been written, and it was possible to turn on only both RCS rings, not one or the other. Gene Kranz wrote, "The crew reacted as they were trained, and they reacted wrong because we trained them wrong." The mission planners and controllers had failed to realize that when two spacecraft were docked, they must be considered one spacecraft. Kranz considered this
21500-537: The mission objectives, while Armstrong served as a capsule communicator (CAPCOM). Following the flight, President Lyndon B. Johnson asked Armstrong and his wife to take part in a 24-day goodwill tour of South America. Also on the tour, which took in 11 countries and 14 major cities, were Dick Gordon, George Low , their wives, and other government officials. In Paraguay, Armstrong greeted dignitaries in their local language, Guarani ; in Brazil he talked about
21672-399: The mission was. So it didn't seem to me there was much point in thinking of something to say if we'd have to abort landing." In 2012, his brother Dean Armstrong said that Neil showed him a draft of the line months before the launch. Historian Andrew Chaikin , who interviewed Armstrong in 1988 for his book A Man on the Moon , disputed that Armstrong claimed to have conceived the line during
21844-623: The mission's most important lesson. Armstrong was depressed that the mission was cut short, canceling most mission objectives and robbing Scott of his EVA. The Agena was later reused as a docking target by Gemini 10. Armstrong and Scott received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal , and the Air Force awarded Scott the Distinguished Flying Cross as well. Scott was promoted to lieutenant colonel , and Armstrong received
22016-422: The mission. Recordings of Armstrong's transmission do not provide evidence for the indefinite article "a" before "man", though NASA and Armstrong insisted for years that static obscured it. Armstrong stated he would never make such a mistake, but after repeated listenings to recordings, he eventually conceded he must have dropped the "a". He later said he "would hope that history would grant me leeway for dropping
22188-454: The new technology had affected business, in which he responded “Not here, all our customers are chauffeur-driven”. Frank Sinatra was a frequent guest to the American Bar whenever he was in London and insisted only Gilmore was to serve him. It is widely believed the line from Sinatra’s One For My Baby "set’em up Joe" is in reference to Gilmore. Gilmore retired from the Savoy in 1976. Created for Sir Winston Churchill ’s ninetieth birthday. It
22360-414: The normal crew rotation, Armstrong would command Apollo 11, with one change: Collins on the Apollo 8 crew began experiencing trouble with his legs. Doctors diagnosed the problem as a bony growth between his fifth and sixth vertebrae, requiring surgery. Lovell took his place on the Apollo 8 crew, and, when Collins recovered, he joined Armstrong's crew. To give the astronauts practice piloting
22532-689: The number-one engine, because of the torque it created. They made a slow, circling descent from 30,000 ft (9 km) using only the number-two engine, and landed safely. Armstrong served as project pilot on Century Series fighters, including the North American F-100 Super Sabre A and C variants, the McDonnell F-101 Voodoo , the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter , the Republic F-105 Thunderchief and
22704-493: The palace became the "Great Hospital of St Bernard de Monte Jovis in Savoy". The manor was subsequently purchased by Queen Eleanor , who gave the site to her second son, Edmund, Earl of Lancaster . Edmund's great-granddaughter, Blanche , inherited the site. Her husband, John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster , built a magnificent palace that was burned down by Wat Tyler 's followers in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. King Richard II
22876-478: The public, with a revolving exhibition of items from the hotel's archives. A motor launch is available to take small parties from the Savoy Pier in front of the hotel for champagne river tours. The critic for The Daily Telegraph wrote: "The Savoy is still The Savoy, only better. ... [The rooms] are calm ... you are the personality, not the room. ... [The hotel is] a saviour of The Strand I suspect now. The lobby
23048-545: The reason why some pilot-engineers got into trouble: Their flying skills did not come naturally. Armstrong made seven flights in the X-15 between November 30, 1960, and July 26, 1962. He reached a top speed of Mach 5.74 (3,989 mph, 6,420 km/h) in the X-15-1, and left the Flight Research Center with a total of 2,400 flying hours. On April 24, 1962, Armstrong flew for the only time with Yeager. Their job, flying
23220-661: The sculpture join his parties of any size when dining at the Savoy. The hotel established its first dinner dances in 1912, laying a dance-floor in the centre of the Thames Foyer in time to take advantage of the popularity of the tango , which exploded in 1913. William de Mornys became head of entertainment after the First World War and helped set up the Savoy Havana Band and the Savoy Orpheans dance band, led by Debroy Somers . The bands were described in The Times as "probably
23392-551: The second group that, compared with the Mercury Seven astronauts, were younger, and had more impressive academic credentials. Collins wrote that Armstrong was by far the most experienced test pilot in the Astronaut Corps. On February 8, 1965, Armstrong and Elliot See were picked as the backup crew for Gemini 5 , with Armstrong as commander, supporting the prime crew of Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad . The mission's purpose
23564-470: The service of the Hotel for, among other serious reasons, gross negligence and breaches of duty and mismanagement. I am also directed to request that you will be good enough to leave the Hotel at once. Ritz threatened to sue the hotel company for wrongful dismissal, but was evidently dissuaded by Escoffier, who felt that their interests would be better served by keeping the scandal quiet. It was not until 1985 that
23736-451: The ship at the end of July. On August 29, 1951, Armstrong saw action in the Korean War as an escort for a photo reconnaissance plane over Songjin . Five days later, on September 3, he flew armed reconnaissance over the primary transportation and storage facilities south of the village of Majon-ni, west of Wonsan . According to Armstrong, he was making a low bombing run at 350 mph (560 km/h) when 6 feet (1.8 m) of his wing
23908-443: The staff made history by taking the first photographs of a hotel guest's toilet articles so that they could lay them out in his bathroom exactly as he liked them. They made sure to provide a fireproof eiderdown quilt to Barrymore, as he always smoked while reading in bed. Bob Dylan stayed in the hotel in 1965 and filmed the video clip " Subterranean Homesick Blues " in an adjacent alley. Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh met at
24080-534: The staff, increased international marketing of the hotel, and led the Savoy's centenary celebrations. Ramón Pajares was managing director from 1994 to 1999. The Savoy continued to be a popular meeting place. " Le tout London was there it seemed, from film stars to businessmen to politicians, all staying or being entertained at the grand old fun palace on the Strand." Bridget D'Oyly Carte died childless in 1985, bringing an end to her family line. In 1998, an American private equity house, The Blackstone Group , purchased
24252-465: The surface of the Moon occurred several seconds after 20:17:40 UTC on July 20, 1969. One of three 67-inch (170 cm) probes attached to three of the LM's four legs made contact with the surface, a panel light in the LM illuminated, and Aldrin called out, "Contact light." Armstrong shut the engine off and said, "Shutdown." As the LM settled onto the surface, Aldrin said, "Okay, engine stop"; then they both called out some post-landing checklist items. After
24424-400: The syllable and understand that it was certainly intended, even if it was not said—although it might actually have been". There have since been claims and counter-claims about whether acoustic analysis of the recording reveals the presence of the missing "a"; Peter Shann Ford , an Australian computer programmer, conducted a digital audio analysis and claims that Armstrong did say "a man", but
24596-505: The third mission after, but Slayton designated David Scott as the pilot of Gemini 8. Scott was the first member of the third group of astronauts , who was selected on October 18, 1963, to receive a prime crew assignment. See was designated to command Gemini 9 . Henceforth, each Gemini mission was commanded by a member of Armstrong's group, with a member of Scott's group as the pilot. Conrad would be Armstrong's backup this time, and Richard F. Gordon Jr. his pilot. Armstrong became
24768-539: The urging of Ritz. For the Savoy, he hired a new chef, François Latry, who served from 1919 to 1942. In the 1920s he ensured that the Savoy continued to attract a fashionable clientele by a continuous programme of modernisation and the introduction of dancing in the large restaurants. It also became the first hotel with air conditioning, steam-heating and soundproofed windows in the rooms, 24-hour room service and telephones in every bathroom. It also manufactured its own mattresses. One famous incident during Rupert's early years
24940-410: Was "the most technically capable of the early X-15 pilots". Bill Dana said Armstrong "had a mind that absorbed things like a sponge". Those who flew for the Air Force tended to have a different opinion, especially people like Chuck Yeager and Pete Knight , who did not have engineering degrees. Knight said that pilot-engineers flew in a way that was "more mechanical than it is flying", and gave this as
25112-584: Was a major U.S. victory in the Space Race , by fulfilling a national goal proposed in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy "of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" before the end of the decade. Along with Collins and Aldrin, Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon and received the 1969 Collier Trophy . President Jimmy Carter presented him with
25284-468: Was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who, in 1969, became the first person to walk on the Moon . He was also a naval aviator , test pilot , and university professor. Armstrong was born and raised in Wapakoneta, Ohio . He entered Purdue University , studying aeronautical engineering , with the U.S. Navy paying his tuition under the Holloway Plan . He became a midshipman in 1949 and
25456-557: Was assigned to VF-51 , an all-jet squadron, becoming its youngest officer, and made his first flight in a jet, a Grumman F9F Panther , on January 5, 1951. He was promoted to ensign on June 5, 1951, and made his first jet carrier landing on USS Essex two days later. On June 28, 1951, Essex had set sail for Korea, with VF-51 aboard to act as ground-attack aircraft . VF-51 flew ahead to Naval Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii, where it conducted fighter-bomber training before rejoining
25628-518: Was blown back over land. A jeep driven by a roommate from flight school picked him up; it is unknown what happened to the wreckage of his aircraft, F9F-2 BuNo 125122 . In all, Armstrong flew 78 missions over Korea for a total of 121 hours in the air, a third of them in January 1952, with the final mission on March 5, 1952. Of 492 U.S. Navy personnel killed in the Korean War, 27 of them were from Essex on this war cruise. Armstrong received
25800-571: Was born on 19 May 1922 in Belfast , Northern Ireland to John Gilmore, a tobacconist , and Margaret O'Connor, a teaching assistant, originally from Wicklow , Ireland . He was the third of nine children. In 1938, aged 16, Gilmore moved to London looking for work and "adventure". He began working as a wallpaper packer at the Arthur Sanderson & Son 's factory in Perivale , London, later moving to
25972-508: Was chosen as part of the pilot consultant group for the X-20 Dyna-Soar , a military space plane under development by Boeing for the U.S. Air Force, and on March 15, 1962, he was selected by the U.S. Air Force as one of seven pilot-engineers who would fly the X-20 when it got off the design board. In April 1962, NASA sought applications for the second group of NASA astronauts for Project Gemini ,
26144-536: Was concerned that the LM was running low on fuel. On landing, Aldrin and Armstrong believed they had 40 seconds of fuel left, including the 20 seconds' worth which had to be saved in the event of an abort. During training, Armstrong had, on several occasions, landed with fewer than 15 seconds of fuel; he was also confident the LM could survive a fall of up to 50 feet (15 m). Post-mission analysis showed that at touchdown there were 45 to 50 seconds of propellant burn time left. The landing on
26316-419: Was depressurized, the hatch was opened, and Armstrong made his way down the ladder. At the bottom of the ladder, while standing on a Lunar Module landing pad, Armstrong said, "I'm going to step off the LM now". He turned and set his left boot on the lunar surface at 02:56 UTC July 21, 1969, then said, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." The exact time of Armstrong's first step on
26488-432: Was later sent from Neil Armstrong to Joe Gilmore. Created to mark Julie Andrews ’ first night in the musical My Fair Lady . Created in 1969 to mark American President Richard Nixon 's visit to Britain . The cocktail was mixed at the American bar and then sent over to Claridge's where Nixon was staying. Created for Sarah, Duchess of York ’s Created for Edward Shelly at his request. Created in 1960 to mark
26660-456: Was less focused on the Savoy. In 1897, Ritz and his partners were dismissed from the Savoy. Ritz and Echenard were implicated in the disappearance of over £ 3,400 (equivalent to £490,000 at 2023), of wine and spirits, and Escoffier had been receiving gifts from the Savoy's suppliers. In a 1938 biography of her husband, Ritz's widow maintained that he resigned and that Escoffier, Echenard, and other senior employees resigned with him. This fiction
26832-520: Was losing money. The board of directors instructed Carte to replace the management team, headed by W. Hardwicke as manager and M. Charpentier as chef de cuisine. As manager he engaged César Ritz , later the founder of the Ritz Hotel ; Ritz brought in the chef Auguste Escoffier and the maître d'hôtel Louis Echenard and put together what he described as "a little army of hotel men for the conquest of London"; Escoffier recruited French cooks and reorganised
27004-409: Was perpetuated for many years, with the consent of the Savoy company. In fact, however, after a damning report by the company's auditors and the advice of the prominent lawyer, Sir Edward Carson , that it was the board's "imperative duty to dismiss the manager and the chef", Carte handed Ritz, Escoffier and Echenard letters of dismissal: By a resolution passed this morning you have been dismissed from
27176-534: Was planned to last 75 hours and 55 orbits. After the Agena lifted off at 10:00:00 EST , the Titan II rocket carrying Armstrong and Scott ignited at 11:41:02 EST, putting them into an orbit from which they chased the Agena. They achieved the first-ever docking between two spacecraft. Contact with the crew was intermittent due to the lack of tracking stations covering their entire orbits. While out of contact with
27348-667: Was recognized by the Scouts with their Distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo Award . While flying toward the Moon on July 18, 1969, he sent his regards to attendees at the National Scout jamboree in Idaho. Among the few personal items that he carried with him to the Moon and back was a World Scout Badge. At age 17, in 1947, Armstrong began studying aeronautical engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana ; he
27520-504: Was released from active duty on August 23, 1952, but remained in the reserve, and was promoted to lieutenant (junior grade) on May 9, 1953. As a reservist, he continued to fly, first with VF-724 at Naval Air Station Glenview in Illinois, and then, after moving to California, with VF-773 at Naval Air Station Los Alamitos . He remained in the reserve for eight years before resigning his commission on October 21, 1960. After his service with
27692-510: Was selected for the U.S. Air Force's Man in Space Soonest program, but the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) canceled its funding on August 1, 1958, and on November 5, 1958, it was superseded by Project Mercury , a civilian project run by NASA. As a NASA civilian test pilot, Armstrong was ineligible to become one of its astronauts at this time, as selection was restricted to military test pilots. In November 1960, he
27864-538: Was still a child, and his uncle John of Gaunt was the power behind the throne, and so a main target of the rebels. About 1505, Henry VII planned a great hospital for "pouer, nedie people", leaving money and instructions for it in his will. The hospital was built in the palace ruins and licensed in 1512. Drawings show that it was a magnificent building, with a dormitory, dining hall and three chapels. Henry VII's hospital lasted for two centuries, but suffered from poor management. The sixteenth-century historian Stow noted that
28036-403: Was subsequently republished in 1952, 1965, 1985, 1996, and expanded in 1999 and 2014. In Savoy Court, vehicles are required to drive on the right . This is said to date from the days of the hackney carriage when a cab driver would reach his arm out of the driver's door window to open the passenger's door ( which opened backwards and had the handle at the front ), without having to get out of
28208-407: Was tasked with piloting chase planes during releases of experimental aircraft from modified bombers. He also flew the modified bombers, and on one of these missions had his first flight incident at Edwards. On March 22, 1956, he was in a Boeing B-29 Superfortress , which was to air-drop a Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket . He sat in the right-hand co-pilot seat while pilot in command, Stan Butchart sat in
28380-518: Was the 1923 shooting, at the hotel, of a wealthy young Egyptian, Prince Fahmy Bey, by his French wife, Marguerite. The widow was acquitted of murder after it was revealed that her husband had treated her with extreme cruelty throughout the six-month marriage and had stated that he was going to kill her. Until the 1930s, the Savoy group had not thought it necessary to advertise, but Carte and Reeves-Smith changed their approach. "We are endeavouring by intensive propaganda work to get more customers; this work
28552-399: Was the first hotel in Britain lit by electric lights and the first with electric lifts. Other innovations included en-suite marble bathrooms with hot and cold running water in most of its 268 rooms; glazed brickwork designed to prevent London's smoke-laden air from spoiling the external walls; and its own artesian well. At first the Savoy did well, but within six months of opening, the hotel
28724-575: Was the maternal uncle of Eleanor of Provence , queen-consort of Henry III of England , and came with her to London. King Henry III made Peter Earl of Richmond and, in 1246, gave him the land between the Strand and the River Thames , where Peter built the Savoy Palace in 1263. Peter gave the palace and the manor of the Savoy to the Congregation of Canons of the Great Saint Bernard , and
28896-761: Was the name of the Princess’s horse on which she participated in the European Championships in 1973. Created for Sir David Davies . Created in 1975 to mark the American and Russians link up in Space, the Apollo–Soyuz project. The link up cocktail was sent to the U.S. and U.S.S.R. for the astronauts to enjoy when they returned from their mission. When told this by NASA as they linked up in Space, they responded, "Tell Joe we want it up here." Created to mark President Charles de Gaulle ’s State visit to Britain after
29068-771: Was the second person in his family to attend college. Armstrong was also accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but he resolved to go to Purdue after watching a football game between the Purdue Boilermakers and the Ohio State Buckeyes at the Ohio Stadium in 1945 in which quarterback Bob DeMoss led the Boilermakers to a sound victory over the highly regarded Buckeyes. An uncle who attended MIT had also advised him that he could receive
29240-602: Was then sent to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas for training on the Grumman F8F Bearcat , culminating in a carrier landing on USS Wright . On August 16, 1950, Armstrong was informed by letter that he was a fully qualified naval aviator . His mother and sister attended his graduation ceremony on August 23, 1950. Armstrong was assigned to Fleet Aircraft Service Squadron 7 (FASRON 7) at NAS San Diego (now known as NAS North Island). On November 27, 1950, he
29412-408: Was to practice space rendezvous and to develop procedures and equipment for a seven-day flight, all of which would be required for a mission to the Moon. With two other flights ( Gemini 3 and Gemini 4 ) in preparation, six crews were competing for simulator time, so Gemini 5 was postponed. It finally lifted off on August 21. Armstrong and See watched the launch at Cape Kennedy , then flew to
29584-441: Was torn off after it collided with a cable that was strung across the hills as a booby trap. He was flying 500 feet (150 m) above the ground when he hit it. While there was heavy anti-aircraft fire in the area, none hit Armstrong's aircraft. An initial report to the commanding officer of Essex said that Armstrong's F9F Panther was hit by anti-aircraft fire . The report indicated he was trying to regain control and collided with
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