Yuri Gagarin was the first human being to travel into space, a Soviet cosmonaut whose single orbit of the Earth in 1961 made him an instant worldwide hero and a symbol of the Soviet Union's triumph in the space race. Born on a collective farm west of Moscow, the son of peasants, he survived the Nazi occupation as a boy and went on to train as a foundryman before learning to fly.
A skilled and enthusiastic pilot, Gagarin was selected from among thousands of candidates for the Soviet cosmonaut program, chosen as much for his modest charm and steady temperament as for his ability. On April 12, 1961, aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, he was launched into orbit and circled the planet once in a flight lasting under two hours before parachuting safely to the ground.
The feat stunned the world and embarrassed the United States, which had not yet put a man in space. Gagarin returned to a hero's welcome, and the Soviet leadership sent him on triumphant tours across the globe, where his warm smile won admirers everywhere.
Too valuable a national symbol to risk on another spaceflight, he was kept largely grounded and took on training and administrative roles, though he longed to fly again. In 1968, while on a routine training flight in a jet fighter, Gagarin was killed in a crash, his death mourned throughout the Soviet Union and beyond.