Cosmonautics Day

Cosmonautics Day (, Den Kosmonavtiki) is an anniversary celebrated in Russia and some other former USSR countries on April 12. In 2011, April 12 was declared as the International Day of Human Space Flight in dedication of the first manned space flight made on April 12, 1961 by the 27-year-old Russian Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin circled the Earth for 1 hour and 48 minutes aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft.