March 1934 in the village of Klushino near Gzhatsk (now in Smolensk Oblast, Russia) Anna Timofeyevna and Alexei Ivanovich Gagarin family. He was the first human to travel into space. At 9:06 am on 12 April 1961 Vostok 1 lifted off with Gagarin on board, and nine minutes later he became the first human to travel into space. Facts
Two days before his flight, Yuri Gagarin
wrote a letter to his wife in case of an accident. Gagarin's wife, Valentina, received this letter seven years later when her husband died in a plane crash in 1968
Gagarin was one of 20 pilots chosen
for the initial Soviet space programme Since 12 April 1961, the anniversary of Gagarin’s first flight has been celebrated in Russia as a holiday known as Cosmonautics Day In total, Gagarin’s flight lasted 108 minutes. Queen Elizabeth II took a picture with him. She explained her decision by saying that Gagarin was not an ordinary person, but a man from space.