Hero Yuri Gagarin

Despite being one of our Cold War foes, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was widely admired for his courage in the United States.

The handsome, smiling Gagarin in April 1962 became the first human to travel into outer space. (Some claim that the Soviets had sent someone up earlier, but that the mission or missions ended in disaster.)

Gagarin had trained at a technical school and had learned to fly before joining the Russian military. He flew MIG fighters prior to competing to be the first man in space.

His small size, 5'2", helped him win this risky honor, inasmuch as the cockpit in the spacecraft was also very small.

The Soviets' feat not only impressed Americans in general, but it lit a fire under the U.S. space prgram as well. The town where Gagarin had been born was re-named in his honor, and he became an international hero/ celebrity of the first order.

Life thereafter was not easy for him, however. He developed drinking and marital problems that very likely stemmed from his instant, overwhelming celebrity.

In 1968, Gagarin was killed when the MIG in which he was flying on a training flight crashed.