Who became the first human to orbit Earth in 1961?

Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth in 1961.

On 12 April 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut launched aboard Vostok 1 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. His flight lasted 108 minutes and completed one orbit of Earth before he returned safely. The mission made Gagarin an international symbol of the Space Age.

Gagarin’s spacecraft was largely automated because engineers were uncertain how a human would respond to weightlessness. He ejected from the capsule during descent and landed by parachute, a detail sometimes omitted from simplified accounts of the flight.

The achievement came during the Cold War space race between the Soviet Union and the United States. Alan Shepard became the first American in space a few weeks later, but his suborbital flight did not orbit Earth. John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth in 1962.