Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin captured the world’s attention on April 12, 1961, when he became the first person to orbit the Earth. It was unquestionably a stunning accomplishment, and his flight changed the course of the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. Like his American counterparts, Gagarin, the son of a collective farmer in the Smolensk region of the Soviet Union, had been a military pilot, and he had entered the cosmonaut program of chief designer Sergei Korolev in the late 1950s. Through hard work and perseverance, he received the assignment to be the first to fly.
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