Born March 6, 1937,
Maslennikovo, Russia

Until she was 25 years old, Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova lived quietly as a factory worker and skydiving enthusiast in the Russian city of Yaroslavl. Her life was transformed in 1962, when she entered the Soviet cosmonaut training program and went on to become the first woman to fly in space. From humble beginnings, she was thrust into stardom by a quirk of fate.

Tereshkova was born on March 6, 1937, in Maslennikovo, a village near the Russian city of Yaroslavl. Her father, who was killed in action during World War II, had been a tractor driver on a collective farm in Maslennikovo. After her father’s death she moved to Yaroslavl, where her mother found work in a textile factory and where Tereshkova started school in 1945. At age 16 Tereshkova went to work in the Yaroslavl tire factory while continuing her studies at night school. In...