Cosmonautics Day

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Cosmonautics Day День Космонавтики
1965 USSR postage stamp commemorating Cosmonautics Day
Observed by	Russia
Type	Historical
Significance	A celebration to commemorate the first manned earth orbit.
Date	April 12
Related to	Yuri's Night

Cosmonautics Day (Russian: День Космонавтики) is a holiday celebrated (mainly in Russia) every April 12 to commemorate the first manned earth orbit. It was established in the USSR on April 9, 1962.

It is celebrated in honour of the historic first manned space flight made on April 12, 1961 by 27 year old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin of the USSR, who made one complete orbit around the Earth (lasting 1 h 48 min) aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1.

It was an instant and overwhelming success for the Soviet space program, and resonated loudly all over the globe. Gagarin immediately became not just a national hero of the Soviet Union, but a global hero too. Major newspapers all around the globe published his biography and details of his flight. Moscow (and other large cities in USSR) held parades, the scale of which were second only to WWII Victory Parades.

Gagarin was escorted in a long motorcade of high-ranking officials through the streets of Moscow to the Kremlin where, in a lavish ceremony, he was awarded the highest Soviet honour, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

On Cosmonautics Day, the commemoration ceremony starts in the city of Korolyov, near Gagarin's statue. Participants then proceed under police escort to Red Square for a visit to Gagarin's grave in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, and continue to Cosmonauts Alley, near the Monument to the Conquerors of Space. Finally, the festivities are concluded with a visit to the Novodevichy Cemetery.