Russian cosmonaut

Yuri A. Gagarin was the first human in space. In 1961, the boyish-looking Soviet cosmonaut captured the attention of the world with his short flight around the earth. "He invited us all into space," American astronaut Neil Armstrong said of him, as quoted in Aviation Week and Space Technology.

The third of four children, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin was born on a collective farm in Klushino, in the Smolensk region of the Russian Federation. His father, Aleksey Ivanovich Gagarin, was a carpenter on the farm and his mother, Anna, a dairymaid. Gagarin grew up helping them with their work. Neither of his parents had much formal education, but they encouraged him in his schooling. During World War II, the family was evicted from their home by invading German troops, and Gagarin's older brother and sister were taken prisoner for slave labor, though...