Yuri Gagarin Timeline

The first twelve cosmonauts, including Gagarin, were approved on 7 March 1960, with eight more added in subsequent orders issued until June. Gagarin began training at Khodynka Airfield in central Moscow on 15 March 1960.

In April 1960, the cosmonaut candidates began parachute training in Saratov Oblast, each completing about 40 to 50 jumps from both low and high altitudes, over both land and water.

On 30 May 1960, Gagarin was further selected for an accelerated training group known as the Vanguard Six or Sochi Six, from which the first cosmonauts of the Vostok programme would be chosen.

Gagarin enrolled at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy in September 1960 while continuing cosmonaut training; he did not earn his specialist diploma until early 1968.

The Vanguard Six were given the title of pilot-cosmonaut in January 1961 and underwent a two-day examination conducted by a special interdepartmental commission led by Lieutenant-General Nikolai Kamanin, overseer of the Vostok programme.

On 12 April 1961, at 6:07 am UTC, the Vostok 3KA-3 (Vostok 1) spacecraft was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Gagarin completed one orbit of Earth, becoming the first person to journey into outer space during the first successful crewed spaceflight.

Image source: Vostok 1

On 15 April 1961, accompanied by officials from the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Gagarin answered questions at a press conference in Moscow reportedly attended by 1,000 reporters.

In 1962, Gagarin began serving as a deputy to the Soviet of the Union and was elected to the Central Committee of the Young Communist League. He was later elected to the Soviet of Nationalities, the lower and upper chambers of the Supreme Soviet respectively.

Gagarin became a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Forces on 12 June 1962 and received the rank of colonel on 6 November 1963.

Despite being a strong contender for Soyuz 1, Gagarin was replaced by Komarov in April 1966 and reassigned to Soyuz 3.

On 17 February 1968, Gagarin successfully defended his aerospace engineering thesis on spaceplane aerodynamic configuration and graduated cum laude from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. After completing his training that February, he was again allowed to fly regular aircraft.

On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from Chkalovsky air base, Gagarin and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died when their MiG-15UTI crashed near the town of Kirzhach.

Image source: Death of Yuri Gagarin

On 14 April 1961, Gagarin was honoured with a 12-mile (19 km) parade attended by millions of people that concluded at the Red Square, celebrating his historic spaceflight.

Gagarin was honoured as Hero of Socialist Labour by Czechoslovakia on 29 April 1961 and by Bulgaria the same year, receiving the Order of Georgi Dimitrov. On 2 August 1961, President Jânio Quadros of Brazil decorated him with the Order of Aeronautical Merit, Commander grade. He also received the FAI's Gold Air Medal (1960) and De la Vaulx Medal (1961).

During a tour of Egypt in late January 1962, Gagarin received the Order of the Nile and the golden keys to the gates of Cairo.

On 22 October 1963, Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova were honoured with the Order of Karl Marx from the German Democratic Republic.

Following his death, the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City was named on 30 April 1968, the Russian Air Force Academy was renamed the Gagarin Air Force Academy, and his hometown of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin, becoming home to numerous museums and monuments to him.

During Apollo 11 in 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a memorial satchel containing medals commemorating Gagarin and Komarov on the Moon's surface. In 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin left the Fallen Astronaut sculpture as a memorial whose plaque included Gagarin's name among 14 others. A crater on the far side of the Moon had been named after him in 1970.

Image source: Fallen Astronaut

Gagarin was inducted as a member of the 1976 inaugural class of the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico.

On 4 June 1980, the Monument to Yuri Gagarin in Gagarin Square, Leninsky Avenue, Moscow, was opened.

Image source: Monument to Yuri Gagarin

Two commemorative coins were issued in the USSR for the 20th and 30th anniversaries of his flight: a one-rouble coin in copper-nickel (1981) and a three-rouble coin in silver (1991). In 2001, Russia issued four coins for the 40th anniversary, and in 2011 a 1,000-rouble gold coin and a three-rouble silver coin marked the 50th anniversary.

Since 1962, 12 April has been celebrated as Cosmonautics Day in the USSR and since 1991 in Russia and other former Soviet republics. Since 2000, Yuri's Night, an international celebration, has been held annually, and in 2011 the UN declared it the International Day of Human Space Flight.

Image source: Cosmonautics Day

In 2008, the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League named their championship trophy the Gagarin Cup in honour of Yuri Gagarin.

Image source: Gagarin Cup

The 50th anniversary of Gagarin's journey into space was marked in 2011 by tributes around the world. The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft was named Gagarin with its launch in April 2011 coinciding with the anniversary, and Armavia named their first Sukhoi Superjet 100 in his honour.

In 2011, a statue of Gagarin was unveiled at Admiralty Arch in London, opposite the permanent sculpture of James Cook; it moved to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in 2013. Also in 2011, Leonov completed a sculpture gifted to Houston, and in 2012 a statue was unveiled at NASA's original spaceflight headquarters site there.

A bust of Gagarin was unveiled at the Birla Planetarium in Kolkata in February 2012. In April 2018, a bust erected on a street bearing his name in Belgrade was removed after less than a week. In August 2019, artist Jorit painted Gagarin's face on a twenty-storey building in Odintsovo, Russia. In March 2021, a statue was unveiled at Mataram Park in Jakarta, Indonesia.

A Russian docudrama titled Gagarin: First in Space was released in 2013, portraying Gagarin's historic journey aboard Vostok 1.

Image source: Gagarin: First in Space