Short answers, pulled from the story.
Luna 2 was a Soviet uncrewed spacecraft launched on the 12th of September 1959. It was the first human-made object to reach the surface of another celestial body, impacting the Moon on the 14th of September 1959 east of Mare Imbrium.
Luna 2 struck the Moon at approximately 0 degrees west and 29.1 degrees north of the centre of the visible disk, near the craters Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus, east of Mare Imbrium. Impact occurred at 00:02:24 Moscow Time on the 14th of September 1959.
Luna 2 found no magnetic field or radiation belt around the Moon. It made the first direct measurement of solar wind flux from outside Earth's magnetosphere, and its ion traps detected an increase in particle flux at 8000 km altitude, suggesting the Moon may have a thin ionosphere.
Bernard Lovell, the astronomer at Jodrell Bank Observatory at the University of Manchester, independently confirmed Luna 2's success. He tracked the probe for about five hours before impact and proved the radio signal was genuine by demonstrating the Doppler shift in its transmissions.
Luna 2 carried two sphere-shaped pennants, each covered with 72 pentagonal elements made of titanium alloy inscribed with the State Emblem of the Soviet Union and the text USSR SEPTEMBER 1959 in Cyrillic. An explosive charge inside each sphere detonated before impact, scattering the titanium shields across the lunar surface.
Yes. During a Soviet exhibit of economic achievements in 1959, a CIA team gained 24 hours of unrestricted access to the Luna 2 display. They discovered it was a fully operational system, not a replica, disassembled and photographed it inside its crate, and reassembled it undetected. The CIA report was declassified in 2019.