Gagarin flew into space in April 1961; that August, the Berlin Wall went up.
The events
- Gagarin's flight1961 · Baikonur. On 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1 became the first human in space. Circling the Earth once in 108 minutes, he landed safely in the Saratov region. The flight was a triumph for the Soviet space programme.
- Berlin Wall built1961 · Berlin. On the night of 13 August 1961 East Germany sealed the border with West Berlin with barbed wire, later a concrete wall. It stopped the exodus of its citizens to the West and stood until 1989.
More amazing facts
- 1953 Spring 1953: the structure of DNA was published on 25 April, and on 29 May Hillary and Tenzing reached the top of Everest.
- 1956 In autumn 1956 the world watched two crises at once: the Anglo-French landing at the Suez Canal and Soviet tanks in Budapest.
- 1957 1957: the USSR launched the first satellite, and six countries signed the Treaty of Rome, the seed of the future EU.
- 1957 1957: Ghana became one of the first countries in sub-Saharan Africa to throw off colonial rule, and the USSR launched the first satellite.
- 1960 In 1960, 17 African countries gained independence — more than in any other single year in history.
- 1977 Star Wars came out in May 1977, and in September France carried out its last execution by guillotine.