Long before the world "selfie" became an irrepressible part of modern pop culture, one man actually took the world's first selfie in space. That man is no other than space icon and moonwalker Buzz Aldrin.
On Nov. 12, 1966, during a spacewalk as part of the Gemini 12 mission, Aldrin, the mission's pilot, snapped a selfie while the hatch of the spacecraft was open.
Check Out Buzz Aldrin's Space Selfie
As he tells Fox News, Aldrin couldn't take the photo at first because it was too difficult to shoot through the window. The astronauts needed to do a lot of prep work beforehand, including shutting of the thrusters so they wouldn't flash during time of exposure.
Ultimately, Aldrin opted for something more unusual. He perched the camera on the hatch's edge, lifted his helmet's sun visor, and, well, made history.
"I took a few pictures of things as we went over. And then I thought, I wonder if this could take a picture of me with the ultraviolet film. So I turned around, clicked the camera and it turned out pretty good!" he said.
The subject came up on Twitter after a user said they would have loved to see Aldrin tweeting from the moon, which to them would have made the whole trip worthwhile.
"No tweets but I did take the first selfie! In, from space! That was one expensive selfie stick!" replied Aldrin.
In 2015, a vintage print of the photo in question was sold for around $9,200 at an auction in London. Aldrin's photo predates the current selfie craze by decades, and he's very proud of the snapshot, having once referred to it as the "best selfie ever."
The World's First Selfie?
While Aldrin may have taken the world's first selfie, another man in the 1800s beat him to the selfie record, as the Library of Congress claims. A portrait dating back to the 1839 shows a man, named Robert Cornelius, taking a picture of himself, and it's believed to be one of the earliest examples of self-portraits in the entire history of photography.
Today, selfies are all over various social media platforms and a lot of times even in television. They continue to be a major part of modern-day culture, so much so that smartphone companies have been putting better selfie cameras on their devices over the years.
But it's safe to say your selfie will never be as cool as Aldrin's or Cornelius's.
Check out our list of the craziest selfies ever taken.
