Fifty years ago, on April 12 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to travel into space, launching to orbit aboard the Vostok 3KA-3 (Vostok 1) spacecraft.

This historic event is commemorated today by Google with a doodle featuring Gagarin and a rocket that launches whenever you put your mouse cursor anywhere on the doodle.

Check out this archival footage of Yuri Gagarin and the launch of Vostok 1:

To find out more about Yuri Gagarin, check out his Wikipedia entry: [Yuri Gagarin]

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Tags: doodle, google, yuri gagarin