On this day.
On This Day March 9, 1934: Birth of Russian astronaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, the first man in space.The son of a carpenter on a collective farm, Gagarin graduated as a moulder from a trade school near Moscow in 1951 but later took a course in flying to gain entry to the Soviet Air Force cadet school at Orenburg, from which he graduated in 1957.
On the morning of April 12, 1961, Gagarin's Vostok 1 spacecraft was launched and orbited the Earth once in one hour 29 minutes at a maximum altitude of 187 miles. His spaceflight brought him immediate worldwide fame; he was awarded the Order of Lenin and given the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union and Pilot Cosmonaut of the Soviet Union. Monuments were raised to him and streets renamed in his honour across the Soviet Union. He never went into space again but took an active part in training other cosmonauts. On March 27, 1968, he died with another pilot when his two-seater jet aircraft crashed in what was described as a routine training flight. His ashes were placed in a niche in the Kremlin wall and the town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin.
Also on this day: 1074: Pope Gregory VII excommunicated all married Roman Catholic priests; 1562: Kissing in public was banned in Naples, punishable by death; 1763: Birth of politician and author William Cobbett; 1892: Birth of novelist Vita Sackville-West; 1932: Eamon de Valera became president of the Irish Republic; 1961: Russian dog Laika sent into space, in Sputnik 9 ; 1967: Stalin's daughter defected to the West; 1974: UK resumed five-day week; 1984: Death of musician Imogen Holst.
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| Publication: | The Birmingham Post (England) |
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| Date: | Mar 9, 2001 |
| Words: | 276 |
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