20 July

Men first walked on the moon

Moonwalk Cocktail

So we are drinking a...

Moonwalk Cocktail

Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, two-thirds of the crew of the Apollo 11 mission, achieved this extraordinary feat on this day back in 1969, watched by an audience all over the world. As Armstrong stepped on to the lunar surface he uttered his famous words, "one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind".

They spent about two and a half hours outside the spacecraft and collected 21.5 kilograms (47½ pounds) of lunar material to bring back to earth.

In honour of space explorers past, present and future, we are drinking a Moonwalk, a vintage cocktail with an otherworldly hint of absinthe created in 1969 by Joe Gilmore at The American Bar at The Savoy Hotel.

Día del Amigo

Today is Día del Amigo, AKA Friend's Day, a Latin American celebration of the wonderful thing that is friendship... Well, it's Friend's Day today in Argentina. Paraguay celebrates it a little later, Peru a little earlier, while the greeting cards industry also has its own version in the US in August.

Why today? Because the founder of Día del Amigo realised, when watching Neil Armstrong et al land on the moon on this day in 1969, that the world was united in friendship -- because everyone had their eyes on that same screen.

In Argentina, today is an occasion for dinner with friends, typically, and to catch up on old times. So, if you've a mate you haven't seen for a while, tonight is the night to get things moving. Invite a friend out for a Tres Amigos Daiquiri, which is, confusingly, more of a Margarita than a Daiquiri.

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