Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin defied gravity and became the first man in space 55 years ago -- on April 12, 1961.

Fifty years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. It was a wondrous achievement - so why did the Russians try to mount a major cover-up on the cosmonaut's return?

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space, on April 12, 1961. Born on March 9, 1934, as a young man he experienced a meteoric rise from tradesman and tractor specialist to pilot ...

The really important part of the story happened an hour and 48 minutes later, when Gagarin returned from space, bringing back a profoundly changed view of our planet.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin blasted off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Vostok 1 capsule, notching a win for the Soviet Union during the Space Race and a huge victory for humanity.

There is something infinitely poetic about that line spoken by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The first man in outer space, Gagarin defied gravity and made a single orbit of Earth in 108 minutes ...

And every year since 2001, the world celebrates this event with Yuri's Night, the World Party for Space, as a gen-x celebration that began forty years after Gagarin's epic voyage.

Yuri Gagarin was celebrated as the first man to orbit Earth. But he didn’t make a complete orbit, almost died due to equipment failures, and ejected too early — landing in a potato field.

When cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly in space, he also became an instant celebrity, a diplomatic icon of the Soviet Union around the world. Gagarin blasted off Earth 60 years ...

On April 12, 1961—55 years ago today—Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin launched into the great beyond, becoming the first human in space. When he came back to Earth, Gagarin was looked upon as ...

On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin circled the Earth aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1. After parachuting from the craft near the Russian village of Smelovka, Gagarin landed a hero ...

It’s been 60 years, to the day, since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human to travel to space in a tiny capsule attached to an R-7 ballistic missile, a powerful rocket originally ...