12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin was the first human to reach outer space
12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin was the first human to reach outer space
Event was (and still is) celebrated in USSR (Russia) since 1962 as "Day of Cosmonautics", from 2001 to 2022 as "Yuri's Night" in US (https://futurism.com/space-conference-censors-yuri-gagarin) and since 2017 as "International Day of Human Space Flight" by the UN.
Pictured: Yuri Gagarin with daughters Galya & Lena, and Ira Komarova. 1965, New Year's Eve.