I missed Neil Armstrong's birthday...

Shame on me. Neil Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, and died August 25, 2012. He's obviously most famous for his time with NASA as an astronaut but he was also an engineer and test pilot for its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (trivia: the acronym was pronounced n-a-c-a, never "nacka" ).  Neil became part of NASA when it was created in 1958, and the rest is history.  
The photo below shows the young test pilot in the Bell X-14 experimental vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft in the 50s. 

Ad Astra.