Every Day Is Special: April 12

April 12 - Yuri's Night

Posted on April 12, 2021

This is an update of my post published on April 12, 2010:

Anniversary of the first human in space!

On this day in 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to go to outer space and the first to orbit the Earth. He made his historic spaceflight for the Soviet Union.

Born to farmer parents, Gagarin became interested in space and planets as a child and got involved with air flight as a high school student. He obtained military flight training before entering the Soviet space program.

Gagarin's famous spaceflight occurred aboard Vostok 1.

During the 108-minute flight, Gagarin whistled a famous tune whose words are “The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows / Where her son flies in the sky.” He also said, “The Earth is blue...How wonderful. It is amazing.”

When pandemic rules don't make gathering together dangerous, some people around the world celebrate the “World Space Party” known as Yuri's Night. (And some attend World Space Parties held over the nearest weekend, as well.)

The theme of Yuri's night is honoring all the people who have made human space exploration possible, feeling united worldwide in our space efforts, and looking to the future with hope of great things.

NOTE: In 2010, when I first wrote about Yuri's Night, the website stated that there were 198 parties in 65 countries on 7 continents (yes, there was a toast in Antarctica) on 2 worlds.

And I thought:

Two worlds?

From my inspection of the party list, I gathered that the second world (Earth being the first) was Second Life, and online virtual world. The party was listed as being held on Space Destiny Island in SciLands Continent, Second Life.

Who knew?

Short man...short life...

Yuri Gagarin was only five feet and two inches tall. His short height helped in his selection among 20 trained cosmonauts for that first cramped spaceflight.

After reaching space, Gagarin was a hero worldwide. He received medals, toured all over, and was given responsibilities designing spacecraft and training cosmonauts.

Soviet officials tried to keep him safe by keeping him on the ground, but he wanted to re-qualify as a fighter pilot. Gagarin and a flight instructor were tragically killed in a routine training flight.

Gagarin was 27 when he made his spaceflight, and he was just 34 years old when he died.

Watch a video

While watching this YouTube trailer - watching Gagarin entering the spacecraft, taking off, and seeing the Earth from space, try to remember that NOBODY HAD EVER DONE THIS BEFORE!

If you have enough time for a longer video (in English!), watch this. I learned for the first time that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a medal awarded to Yuri Gagarin on the Moon, as a tribute to human's first in space.

Did you know...?

Yuri Gagarin had no control over his spacecraft while in flight!

As planned, Gagarin parachuted out of his spaceship once it was very close to the crashdown site. Gagarin and his space capsule landed only 1.5 kilometers apart - but unfortunately about 300 kilometers (around 186 miles) away from his expected landing site.

Read more about Gagarin's return to Earth here - like the fact that a Soviet woman was planting potatoes with her 5-year-old granddaughter when she was startled to see a stranger in an orange jumpsuit and a helmet walking toward her! This grandma-and-granddaughter duo were the first to see the cosmonaut after he landed - and the woman was able to help Gagarin remove his helmet, and she offered him milk she had ready for her lunch!

Gagarin's landing capsule looked a bit worse for the wear -
charred by its passage through Earth's atmosphere.

Gagarin was inspired...

Yuri Gagarin was inspired to travel into space when he was just a kid—and then he got to accomplish his dream!

Find what inspires you. If you, too, are interested in space stuff, check out this website!

Try something that is a personal first today. (You don't have to be the first human to do something to experience the excitement of a “first”!)

Listen to some space music...

Gagarin apparently listened to music while waiting in the cramped Vostok vessel for the countdown to begin, whistled a song as he flew over the Earth, and heard a song that was specially radioed to him as he flew over Russia, too.

Music can be a way of soothing the worried and entertaining the bored, but it can also teach us things and excite our emotions.

Here is a cute astronaut song for little kids.

And here is a song about dwarf planets.

Here is the electromagnetic (radiation) information coming from a supernova translated into sounds.

There is this actual genre of music called “space music,” which is very mellow electronic stuff. Here is a sample, accompanying the fabulous “Powers of Ten” video that takes us upward by powers of ten, from a couple picnicking in the park to our galaxy's patch of the universe—and then downward to an atom. Very interesting!