Born in 1934 in Klushino

Yuri Gagarin was the Soviet cosmonaut who on April 12, 1961, became the first human being to travel into outer space and orbit the Earth. Born on March 9, 1934, in the village of Klushino, Smolensk Oblast, he grew up in a working-class family. His father was a carpenter, his mother a dairy worker. During World War II the family endured German occupation and severe hardship.

After the war Gagarin trained as a foundryman before enrolling at an industrial college in Saratov. There he joined an aero club and experienced flight for the first time, igniting his passion for aviation. In 1955 he entered Orenburg Air Force Academy, qualified on MiG jets, and was posted to Murmansk above the Arctic Circle, where extreme weather conditions honed his composure.

In 1960 the Soviet space program secretly selected twenty pilots from over three thousand candidates. Gagarin's compact build suited the cramped Vostok capsule, and his calm judgment, warm personality, and working-class origin matched the ideal Soviet hero profile. He edged out German Titov in the final selection.

On April 12, 1961, at 09:07 Moscow time, Vostok 1 launched from Baikonur with Gagarin aboard. His cry of Poyekhali (Let's go!) entered history. The spacecraft orbited Earth at a peak altitude of 327 kilometres, and 108 minutes later he landed by parachute in Saratov Oblast after ejecting from the capsule.

Overnight Gagarin became a global celebrity. He toured over thirty countries, and his genuine warmth transcended Cold War divides. Yet he was barred from further spaceflights because the state could not risk losing its symbol. He struggled with the tension between his identity as a pilot and his role as a public icon.

On March 27, 1968, he died when his MiG-15UTI trainer crashed near Moscow. He was thirty-four. The cause remains debated; a near-miss with another aircraft is the leading theory. April 12 is now the UN International Day of Human Space Flight.