A Tribute To Yuri Gagarin, First Man In Space

Join us on Saturday, March 9, 2013 at 12:45 p.m. at 7 Stars Diner (132-09 14th Avenue, College Point, NY 11356) as we pay tribute to the life of Yuri Gagarin , the Russian Cosmonaut who was the First Man In Space. March 9th was Yuri Gagarin's birthday.

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language): Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин; IPA: [ˈjʉrʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ɡɐˈɡarʲɪn] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Russian); 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Air_Force) pilot and cosmonaut (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmonaut). He was the first human to journey into outer space (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_space), when his Vostok (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostok_(spacecraft)) spacecraft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecraft) completed an orbit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit) of the Earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth) on 12 April 1961.

Gagarin became an international celebrity, and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_of_the_Soviet_Union), the nation's highest honour. Vostok 1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vostok_1) marked his only spaceflight, but he served as backup crew to the Soyuz 1 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_1) mission (which ended in a fatal crash). Gagarin later became deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin_Cosmonaut_Training_Center) outside Moscow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow), which was later named after him. Gagarin died in 1968 when the MiG 15 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiG_15) training jet he was piloting crashed.