On September 14, 1959 the Soviet Luna 2 spacecraft became the first in history to reach the surface of the moon and in doing so the first to reach the surface of any celestial body.
As USSR Magazine noted in 1963:
The Soviet space rocket reached the lunar surface. This was the first space flight from the earth to another celestial body. The rocket delivered pennants to the moon bearing the Soviet emblem and the inscription “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. September, 1959."