On April 12, 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to orbit Earth. His flight in Vostok 1 lasted less than two hours.

Born on March 9, 1934 -- he eventually died in a tragic air crash at the age of 34 -- Gagarin was picked because apart from his gregarious personality, he stood at a mere 5 feet 2 inches, a big advantage in the small Vostok cockpit.

During his flight, it is said Gagarin whistled the tune 'The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows, Where her son flies in the sky', a patriotic song written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1951. The astronaut was eventually buried in the walls of the Kremlin. Interestingly, the Government of India issued a postage stamp commemorating the fortieth anniversary of Gagarin's space flight.

There were two further milestones in 1961. On May 5, Alan Shepard became the first American in space, with a 15-minute sub-orbital flight aboard Freedom 7. On May 25, then President John F Kennedy vowed to send men to the moon and back by the end of the decade.