Fifty years ago, on April 12th, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth in a spacecraft for 108 minutes, marking the first time humans had traveled in space! As a result, the UN has declared April 12th, the International Day of Human Space Flight. If you’d like to read more about this fascinating bit of space travel trivia, try out these research databases:
History Reference Center – just the historical facts here – check out loads of primary and secondary source documents – everything for the history buff.
Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia – good, old-fashioned encyclopedia – crammed with all sorts of knowledge you can impress folks with at cocktail parties.
General Reference Center Gold – a motley assortment of various information sources with many great articles about the first space flight!