[jlangenauer]

The title is misleading - Luna 15 has long been known about, and it didn't land on the moon before the Americans, but in fact a few hours after they landed (as both the telegraph article and the Wikipedia entry on Luna 15 show).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_15

[wglb]

I think the headline just simply got truncated--"a few hours before the Americans Took Off".