Space is Conquered
On the day that this photo was taken, the 12th April 1961, Russian Astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space and the first to orbit the Earth. Gagarin was 27 when he boarded the Soviet Vostok I spaceship at the Baikonur rocket launch pad. Gagarin's flight was a major landmark in the race for space supremacy between the US and the Soviet Union. The day is now marked by a national holiday in Russia and Gagarin, who died in 1968, was an international hero and celebrity.

He wasn't the first animal to go into space however – these were fruit flies, launched by the US on German V Rockets in 1946. In 1957, the first dog was sent into orbit – the first of three Soviet space dogs to fly in Sputniks – followed by chimpanzees and then turtles, which were the first animals to orbit the moon.

For more about the Space Race, see Moon Landing.