Yuri Gagarin

The first human to ever enter space, Yuri Gagarin was launched into orbit in Vostok 1 on 21 April 1961. His flight lasted 108 minutes and he completed one full orbit at an altitude of 190 miles traveling at 18,000 miles per hour. He never went into space again and in 1968 was killed in a plane crash. His journey into space on the heels the successul launching of Sputnik in 1957 spurred the USA into escalting the space race.

Source: Tass News Agency, London. In The Nuclear Age. TimeFrame AD 1950-1990. (Time-Life Books, Alexandria, VA; 1990), p. 38.