April 12th 1961: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space
On this day in 1961, the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to travel into outer space. Gagarin spent 108 minutes completing an orbit of the Earth in the spacecraft Vostok 1 before a successful ejection and parachute landing. Gagarin became famous worldwide and a Russian hero, being awarded the nation’s highest honour: Hero of the Soviet Union.
“Don’t be afraid, I am a Soviet citizen like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!”
- Gagarin to some stunned farmers when he landed
January 28th 1986: Challenger Disaster
On this day in 1986, the US space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its 10th flight, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members. The craft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean due to technical malfunction. The crew compartment and various fragments were recovered from the ocean floor, and several of the crew are known to have survived the initial breakup and died upon impact with the ocean surface. The tragedy occurred the same day President Ronald Reagan was due to give his annual State of the Union, but he postponed the speech and instead gave a national address on the Challenger disaster. Reagan quoted the poem ‘High Flight’ by John Gillespie Magee Jr:
“We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of Earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.’”
