This is Amy Wagenaar from the Historical Society of Michigan with a Michigan History Moment. The University of Michigan has many distinctions. It has one distinction unlike that of any other university in the world. It has an alumni chapter on the moon. The University of Michigan was founded in 1817 in Detroit and originally named the Catholopistamiad, or University of Michigania. The name brought about much ridicule. Territorial Governor Lewis Cass disparaged it as the Catholow whatsits name. In 1821, the name was changed to the University of Michigan. It moved to Ann Arbor in 1837, the same year that Michigan became a state. NASA's Apollo program of the 1960s and early 1970s put astronauts on the moon. Apollo 11 put the first men on the moon in 1969, and several other missions followed. Apollo 15 landed on the lunar surface in 1971, its astronauts tasked with bringing back rock samples. All three astronauts, James Irwin, David Scott, and command pilot Alfred Worden, had ties to the University of Michigan. Scott attended Michigan for a year before accepting an invitation to the United States Military Academy at West Point. James Irwin earned two master's degrees in aeronautical engineering and instrumentation engineering, and at the University of Michigan in 1957. Alfred Worden earned the same degrees at U of M in 1963. In 1971, after their Apollo mission, the University of Michigan awarded honorary doctoral degrees in astronautical engineering to all three men. The Apollo 15 mission was the first in which astronauts used the lunar roving vehicle, best known as simply the lunar rover. Irwin and Scott completed three extravehicular activities on the moon, while Worden orbited above in the command module. In addition to collecting rock samples, they left a document that established a lunar branch of the University of Michigan's alumni association. The document read, the Alumni association of the University of Michigan Charter Number One. This is to certify that the University of Michigan Club of the Moon is a duly constituted unit of the Alumni association and entitled to all the rights and privileges under the association's constitution. Popular belief notwithstanding, the Apollo 15 crew did not leave a U of M flag on the moon, only a United States flag. The U of M alumni charter document remains on the moon today. It's safe to assume that no one attends any Club of the Moon meetings. This Michigan history moment is brought to you by michiganhistorymagazine.org.