Apparently the Apollo 8 crew were going to joke to Mission Control about
seeing a giant black Monolith in orbit with them while they circled the
Moon, but decided not to do so in the end.

1968 may have been seen as a terrible year by some, but a number of
truly wonderful events that have lasted the decades also came out of
that time, such as the films 2001: A Space Odyssey and the original
Planet of the Apes.

In 1968 you could seriously imagine that by the dawn of the next
Millennium, there would be manned lunar bases, AI, and missions to
Jupiter. I will be amazed in 40 years time if we even have a minimal
human base at the lunar south pole, let alone anything else.