Today’s History: The birth of Gagarin, the first human to measure space, through this Soviet Russia had overtaken the US in the space race

On this day in 1934, Yuri Gagarin, the first man to go into space, was born. On 12 April 1961, at the age of 27, he flew in the spacecraft Vostalk-1 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to a place where no human had gone before him. It was the victory of Soviet Russia over America in the space race.

To go out of Earth’s gravitational force, his vehicle covered a distance of 8 km in one second. This was possible for the first time and Gagarin reached space. From there he saw the beauty of the earth. When Yuri Gagarin went to space, the son of farmer parents, no one knew him, but when he returned he became famous around the world. He had become the national hero of Russia.

After this, Soviet Russia sent him as an undeclared ambassador to different countries around the world. The Soviet Union wanted to prove its superiority during the Cold War era. However, only 19 days after this, NASA also sent a human to space.

After this the Soviet Union banned Gagarin from going into space. In 1968, he lost his life in an accident during flight training.

There was no rescue system in the vehicle that went into space.
To make history, Gagarin had accepted a dangerous challenge by showing indomitable bravery. They were being sent into space, about which people knew very little. They were going there in a vehicle in which there was no system of rescue in case of an emergency.

The rocket with which he was to be sent into space had failed many times before. In fact, Gagarin was used for such an experiment, which had to answer many questions. Like can humans survive in space? Is it possible to travel by spacecraft? Will the spacecraft continue to have contact with Earth that is also effective? Will the spacecraft make a safe return? All these questions were answered by this visit.

Stalin’s daughter left the country
On this day in 1967, Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Soviet (now Russia) leader Joseph Stalin, left the Soviet Union. From there she reached Delhi. India was not in favor of giving them political asylum. Svetlana stayed at the US Embassy in Delhi and sought political asylum from the US. From India she went to Switzerland and then to America.

Not much was known about Svetlana after the death of her father in 1953. In 1964 she married Indian diplomat Brajesh Singh. This was Svetlana’s third marriage. After taking American citizenship, Svetlana changed her name to Lana Peters. Here in 1970 she married an architect named William Peters, but she was soon divorced from Peters.

March 9 is also remembered for these events in the country and the world:

2004: Pakistan test-fired 2000 km range and surface-launched ‘Shaheen-2’ (Hatf-6) missile.

1999: In Britain, Indian-origin veteran industrialist Swaraj Paul was conferred an honorary doctorate by the Central Birmingham University.

1986: The first satellite-based telephone connectivity network was formally launched.

1973: In a referendum held in Northern Ireland, the public voted in favor of staying with Britain. About 57 percent of voters favored staying with Britain. However, Catholic Christians boycotted the referendum.

1959: A worldwide favorite of girls, Barbie dolls were unveiled for the first time at the American Toy Fair in New York City.

1956: Indian diplomat and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was born in London, England.

1951: Famous Tabla player Zakir Hussain was born. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1988 and the Padma Bhushan in 2002.

[1945:The US Air Force dropped bombs on Tokyo, the fire from the bombing burned nearly a quarter of the city to ashes and killed 80,000 people.

1454: Seafarer Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy. America got its name because of him.