Born March 9, 1934,
Klushino, Russia
Died March 27, 1968,
Near Moscow, Russia

Yury Alekseyevich Gagarin’s successful orbit of Earth was a technical triumph for the Soviet Union that came at the height of the Soviet-American rivalry for dominance in space exploration. His flight is also considered to have inaugurated modern space exploration. Although Gagarin never participated in another space venture, he became a goodwill ambassador and a leader in Russia’s cosmonaut training program. His career was cut short when he died in a training mission in 1968.

Gagarin was born on March 9, 1934, in the village of Klushino near the town of Gzhatsk, where his mother and father worked on a collective farm. Gagarin was forced to quit school in 1941 when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union during World War II. For a while the Gagarins lived in a dugout shelter because their home was occupied by...