According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a selfie is “a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone and shared via social media.” While not captured with a phone, the first selfie in space was snapped way back in 1966, when astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin took a self-portrait using a camera mounted on his space-walking equipment during the Gemini 12 mission. In 2014, a proud Aldrin reminded the world of this historic first on Twitter, describing the 1966 photo as the "BEST SELFIE EVER."
No social media in 1966...or 1839:
- Buzz Aldrin will turn 88 on 20 January 2018. He remains active on Twitter, with 1.39 million followers, who were kept notified of his medical evacuation from Antarctica in 2016 when severe congestion in his lungs cut the trip short.
- Aldrin, who became the second man to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, loves adventure. He has traveled to the bottom of the North Atlantic to see the Titanic wreckage, and has visited both of Earth's poles.
- Photography pioneer Robert Cornelius may have taken the first selfie in history, producing a groundbreaking daguerreotype of himself in 1839. The "selfie" graces his tombstone at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.