the interior of the Memorial House-Museum of his parents.

Step inside the hometown of the first human in space

West of Moscow, the small provincial town of Gagarin is a shrine to beloved Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

A portrait of Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space, hangs in his parents' former home, which became a museum after his death in 1968.
Photograph by Daria Garnik

Tonight, space fans around the world will party like it’s 1961.

Since 2001, the evening of April 12 has been celebrated every year as Yuri’s Night—a global event to honor one of space exploration’s most beloved figures, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who was the first human to blast into space. Fans will dance, hoist drinks, attend lectures, and generally gather to pay tribute to a hero and revel in all things cosmic.

Though he never set foot outside his Vostok 1 spacecraft as it made a complete orbit around Earth, Gagarin’s journey was a major milestone in the space exploration timeline. He was the first person to see space from beyond the confines of the atmosphere, and the first person

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