Who is Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, Wikipedia answer: (Russian: Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин,Russian pronunciation: [ˈjurʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksʲeɪvʲɪtɕ ɡɐˈɡarʲɪn]; 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968, was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961. Gagarin became an international celebrity, and was awarded many medals and honours, including Hero of the Soviet Union. Vostok 1 marked his only spaceflight, but he served as backup to the Soyuz 1 mission, which ended in a fatal crash. Gagarin later became deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow, which was later named after him. Gagarin died when a training jet he was piloting crashed in 1968.
Google has started displaying a special logo celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first manned space flight. On April 12, 1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin flew the Vostok 1 space craft into orbit becoming the first human to reach outer space.
The doodle sports a retro look and is inspired by Soviet posters of the era. It features Gagarin, the first man in space, in full space suit.
It also features a short animation, activated when hovering over the Google logo, showing the Vostok-K rocket, which carried the Vostok spacecraft, launching into space. As usual, the logo still displays the Google name, written in a special font.
The first manned flight into space is one of the big events of the 20th century and marked a pivotal point in the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States, which started with the first artificial satellite in space, the Sputnik 1 satellite, launched four years prior to the first manned flight.
The Space Race culminated with the first Moon landing, in 1969, just 8 years after the first man reached space. The Americans got to the moon first, of course, while the Russians later focused on the Soyuz program.
