The cocktail was made to commemorate Neil Armstrong's first step on the surface of the moon.
The cocktail was created in 1969 (of course) by Joe Gilmore, bartender at Savoy Hotel.
The history for this cocktail is simple. It was created by Gaz Regan, after he realized that, until that point, no one thought of making a New Orleans Sour cocktail that had a rum base. The cocktail name it's self-explanatory.