I was browsing NASA and came across an interesting table of all the moon shots. These are ones that attempted, led up to, or completed landings.

I found it amazing how many there had been (73!), how many failures there were (the US missed 9 times before finally hitting with Ranger 4 in April 1962), and how quickly it went from the first successful soft landing of any probe to Apollo 11.

Some highlights from the table:

1st US attempt - August 1958
1st impact on moon - USSR - Luna 2 - Sept. 1959
1st US impact - Ranger 4 - Apr. 1962
1st soft landing - USSR - Luna 9 - Jan. 1966
1st US soft landing - Surveyor 1 - May 1966
1st Earth-Mooon-Earth probe - USSR - Zond 5 - Sept. 1968
1st manned circumlunar flight - Apollo 8 - Dec. 1968
1st manned landing - Apollo 11 - July 1969

Why the h*** is it so hard to get back to the moon, or to Mars, over 30 years later!