The first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon was Luna 9.
The Soviet Luna 9 landed in Oceanus Procellarum on February 3, 1966. It was the first spacecraft to survive a controlled landing without simply crashing into the lunar surface, and it transmitted the first photographs taken from the Moon. The lander used a braking sequence followed by an airbag-protected capsule that separated and settled onto the surface.
Luna 9’s success ended a long series of Soviet and American lunar landing failures. Its instruments studied the surface and confirmed that a spacecraft would not sink deeply into a layer of dust, an uncertainty that had mattered for planning future crewed missions. The lander operated for several days and returned panoramic images and scientific measurements.
Luna 2 had reached the Moon earlier, but it was an intentional impact mission, not a soft landing. Apollo 11 landed humans later, in 1969, while the American Surveyor 1 became the first successful U.S. soft landing in June 1966.