Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Apollo program was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA that landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Across six landings, twelve people walked on the lunar surface, and the program returned over 382 kilograms of lunar rocks and soil to Earth.
Apollo ran from 1961 to 1972, with its first crewed flight in 1968. The first Moon landing came on Apollo 11, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down at the Sea of Tranquility on the 20th of July 1969.
Kennedy committed to the Moon landing on the 25th of May 1961, after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space on the 12th of April 1961, deepening American fears of falling behind. Kennedy used the goal as a measure of national leadership, telling Congress the nation should land a man on the Moon and return him safely before the decade was out.
On the 27th of January 1967, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee died when an electrical fire spread through their command module during a launch pad test. The pure oxygen, high-pressure cabin let the fire spread quickly, and the crew were asphyxiated before the hatch could be opened.
The Apollo 13 crew survived by using the lunar module as a lifeboat after an oxygen tank exploded two days into the flight in April 1970. The lunar module provided propulsion, electrical power, and life support to return James Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise safely to Earth.
The Apollo program ended as public and political interest waned after the first landings and President Nixon sought to rein in federal spending. NASA could not sustain missions costing on average 445 million dollars each while also developing the Space Shuttle, leading to the cancellation of Apollo 18, 19, and 20, with Apollo 17 the final mission in December 1972.