MOSCOW – Russians still brim with pride over being the first nation to send a human into space. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who stunned Americans by circling the Earth in 1961, remains a national hero whose story is taught to Russian schoolchildren.
Wall Street Journal: Russia, an early space pioneer, never regained its lead
People gather on the Red Square, on April 14 1961, to celebrate the flight of Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first human to travel in space aboard Vostok I and the first to orbit the Earth.
