“Houston, Tranquillity Base here, the Eagle has landed.”
The immortal words which preceded the first human steps on the moon. But the Eagle lunar module was not the only historic landing that day.
For Mark Aldrin Armstrong Kimberley, from Chelmsley Wood, had entered the world not long after Buzz Aldrin Jr, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins had left it.
The father-of-three was the first baby to be born in Birmingham, at Marston Green Maternity Hospital, following Apollo 11’s landing in the early hours of July 21, 1969.
Mark’s parents Una, 64, and Bill, 65, knew little of the excitement which had gripped the world and called their baby Mark Anthony. Nine days later journalists from the Birmingham Post, reporting on Mark’s arrival, joked they should name him after the two American astronauts.
Mr Kimberley, a fitter mechanic who lives with partner Sharon Mansell and their children Tanya, Mark and Daniel, said his lifelong ambition is to meet his namesakes. “I was ridiculed when I was young but as I get older people seem to find it fascinating.”
