Valentina Tereshkova is the only woman ever to fly in space alone.

1963

Before becoming a cosmonaut she worked in a textile mill and secretly took up parachuting; her call sign in orbit was 'Chaika', Seagull.

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The event

• Valentina Tereshkova's spaceflight1963 · Baikonur. On 16 June 1963 Vostok 6 lifted off from Baikonur with Valentina Tereshkova aboard. She became the first woman in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times in almost three days.

20th century

More amazing facts

• 1961 Gagarin flew into space in April 1961; that August, the Berlin Wall went up.
• 1962 · 1963 Decca Records turned the Beatles down.
• 1963 The Moscow–Washington hotline was once cut by a Finnish farmer's plough and another time by a Danish bulldozer.
• 1963 The first woman flew into space when the Beatles had released just one album.
• 1964 The 1964 Tokyo Olympics were the first broadcast overseas without flying tapes across.
• 1964 · 1978 The echo of the Big Bang was first blamed on pigeon droppings.

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