On This Day: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space

APRIL 12, 1961: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space on this day in 1961.

The former steelworker, who was selected by Communist Party chiefs due to his working class credentials, also became the first human to orbit the earth.

Gagarin, 27, spent only one hour and 48 minutes in space aboard Vostok 1, whose launch was shown in a British Pathé newsreel, before returning.

He landed in a field near Engels, a south-western Russian town named for Friedrich Engels who, alongside fellow German Karl Marx, wrote the Communist Manifesto.

The orange-clad cosmonaut was greeted by a startled farmer and his daughter.

‘When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear,’ Gagarin later recalled.

‘I told them, 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!’

News of the first ever manned space flight – made three weeks before American Alan Shepard went into orbit - was received with a mixture of elation, irritation and fear.

U.S. President John F Kennedy congratulated the Soviets for their ‘outstanding technical achievement’.

[On This Day: Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space]

But he was worried that it would enable his Cold War rival to develop even deadlier weapons and irked that the Communists had once again come first in the Space Race.

The Soviet Union had triggered this race by sending the first satellite, Sputnik, and living creature, mongrel dog Laika, into space in 1957.

In response, President Dwight Eisenhower ordered more of America’s superior economic resources to be devoted to the Space Race.

But the Americans suffered setback after setback during the early years – and would have to wait until the moon landings in 1969 to finally move ahead.

Gagarin helped once again raise the prestige of the communist system – and turned himself into an instant global celebrity.

In an interview watched by millions around the world, he revealed what it was like to be in space to people who previously had no idea it was even possible.

[On This Day: Monkeys return from space]

‘The feeling of weightlessness was somewhat unfamiliar compared with Earth conditions,’ he explained to shocked audiences everywhere.

‘Here, you feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended.’

After this he went on a world tour, visiting Italy, Germany, Brazil, Japan, Egypt, Finland, Canada, and the UK, where he spent time in London and Manchester.

The father of two’s sudden stardom, however, took a toll on his health after he began drinking excessively.

It also dented his relationship with his wife Valentina after she reportedly caught him in bed with a nurse in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

That profession seemed particularly drawn to the 5ft 2in spaceman, who was the shortest man to ever enter the orbit.

[On This Day: USSR lands on Venus and nearly wins space race]

Pretty British dental nurse, 23, Olivia Brayden declared him the ‘most kissable man in the world’ embracing a surprised Gagarin outside the Soviet embassy in London.

‘Oh it was wonderful, just wonderful,’ she told waiting reporters. ‘I’m mad about him. I shall remember it always.’

After his tour, Gagarin briefly served as a politician in Moscow before returning to the Star City cosmonaut base, where he eventually became deputy-training director.

He also re-qualified as a fighter pilot and on March 27, 1968, he and his instructor Vladimir Seryogin died in a crash while flying a MiG-15UTI.

The following year, on July 20, 1969, Gagarin’s feat was eclipsed when Americans Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins landed on the moon.

Yet few people at the time realised just how close the USSR came to dashing JFK’s dream.

The secretive Soviets kept under wraps the fact that, 17 days earlier, its own N1 moon rocket exploded seconds after lift-off, causing the biggest non-nuclear blast in history.

[On This Day: Boxing legend Joe ‘Brown Bomber’ Louis passes away]

Details of the explosion, which was powerful enough to level a town the size of Luton, were only revealed after the fall of communism in the 1990s.

The lid was also lifted on how the brave Bolsheviks kept on trying – and failing – with ten launches between 1969 and 1974, when its moon programme was axed.

NASA successfully landed six manned shuttles on the moon between 1969 and 1972 when the U.S. government ended its expensive programme.