Gagarin landed separately from his capsule, by parachute, after ejecting at 7 km. FAI rules then required a pilot to land inside his craft for a record, and the USSR admitted the truth only in 1971.

1961 · 1971 · apart: 10 years

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The event

• 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.

20th century

More amazing facts

• 1960 In 1960, 17 African countries gained independence — more than in any other single year in history.
• 1960 · 1969 · 2012 Until 2012, only two people had been to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, six times fewer than had walked on the Moon.
• 1960 No camera caught Khrushchev banging his shoe at the UN. On 12 October 1960 a photo shows a shoe on his desk, but whether he pounded it is still debated; biographer William Taubman, after interviewing witnesses, concluded he did.
• 1961 Gagarin flew into space in April 1961; that August, the Berlin Wall went up.
• 1961 A space dog's daughter lived in the White House.
• 1961 The first people to greet a man back from space were a farm worker and her granddaughter.

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