Today marks the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin‘s historic space flight in the Vostok 1 spacecraft, which made the Soviet cosmonaut the first human in space. During a 108-minute flight on April 12, 1961, Gagarin was the first human to escape Earth’s gravity and achieve orbit.
Each year, this milestone is celebrated around the globe with Yuri’s Night, which this year includes 500 parties in 72 countries on 6 continents. There’s various types of parties — some are free, others are ticketed — which can range from intimate gatherings to galas with over 10,000 attendees, with several Observatories hosting events, as well as one at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Visit the Yuri’s Night Events List page to find a party in your area.
Also, Google is celebrating today with an animated retro redesign of their logo on their home page, which shows a capsule launch while Gagarin looks up to the sky. This isn’t the first time this event got Google logo treatment: In 2007, the logo was of Gagarin’s space capsule orbiting Earth while two small aliens waved him on.
My childhood dream was to become an astronaut
Comment by nick price — April 13, 2011 @ 12:33 am