-born March 9, 1934
-born on a collective farm in a region west of Moscow, Russia
-father was a carpenter
after six years at his local school moved and continued at technical schools
-in 1955 he joined the Russian Air Force
he graduated from the Soviet Air Force in 1957 with honours
-he became a military fighter pilot
-he was chosen to train as a cosmonaut with the first group of USSR cosmonauts in 1959
-he only ever traveled in one space flight
-April 12, 1961 he became the first man ever to venture up into space and the first man to orbit the Earth
-he traveled in Vostok 1
-circled the Earth at 27,400km/hr
-flight lasted 108 minutes
-at the highest point he was 327km above Earth
-did not have any control over the craft once he was in orbit
-the craft was controlled by a computer program that sent radio commands to the spacecraft
-there was an emergency key that Gagarin could use that would give him the control over the craft
-after reentry Gagarin was ejected into the atmosphere and landed by a parachute
-Gagarin died March 27, 1968 at 34
-he was piloting an MIG-15 crashed near Moscow
-he was in training for another space mission when he died