Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Apollo program began with a political calculation made in the Oval Office during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower in early 1960. NASA Deputy Administrator Hugh L. Dryden announced the program to industry representatives proposing a three-person spacecraft that would eventually carry humans to the lunar surface.
President John F. Kennedy delivered a Special Message to Congress on the 25th of May 1961 setting a national goal to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth before the decade was out. This decision transformed Apollo from a vague concept into the most expensive and complex peacetime project in history requiring $25 billion.
John Houbolt an engineer at Langley Research Center championed the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous method by bypassing the NASA hierarchy to send memos to Associate Administrator Robert Seamans. This approach minimized the total mass to be launched and allowed the Saturn V rocket to replace the even larger Nova-class launcher.
An electrical fire began in the cabin of the Apollo 1 command module during a simulated countdown at Cape Canaveral and spread quickly through flammable materials. The hatch designed to open inward against the pressure could not be opened in time and the astronauts Gus Grissom Ed White and Roger Chaffee were asphyxiated before rescue could be attempted.
The first human landing on the Moon occurred on the 20th of July 1969 when the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle touched down in the Sea of Tranquility. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the surface while Command Module Pilot Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit aboard the Command Module Columbia.
The final fiscal year of Apollo funding was 1973 and the program ended with a series of budget cuts and political decisions. The final landing Apollo 17 took place in December 1972 in the Taurus-Littrow region with geologist Harrison Schmitt joining Eugene Cernan and Ronald Evans.