Exploration of the Moon: from antiquities to Apollo

In 2019, humanity celebrated the 50th anniversary of the historic landing of Apollo 11 on the surface of the Moon, and in late 2022 we will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the final Apollo 17 mission. Though the Apollo missions have contributed greatly to our scientific understanding of the Moon, it is sometimes easy to lose sight of the fact that the exploration of the Moon has had a very long history, and in fact continues up to the present day. In this talk, I will give an overview of some of the key events in lunar exploration, from the first naked-eye observations by early astronomers, to the first robotic missions, and finally to the first crewed missions to the lunar surface.