April 12 - the day that changed history

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Man has always looked to the sky. He imagined distant worlds, talked about the existence of higher beings living somewhere far, far away, came up with hypotheses-legends about creatures from heaven. And only a few decades ago, people were able to look beyond the horizon for the first time.

April 12, 1961 is the day that changed the history of all mankind. It was on this day that the inhabitants of the Earth challenged the cosmos.

How did it all start?

People dreamed about the stars for a long time, but the first attempts to get to them began only in 1957, when the first artificial satellite was launched into the Earth's orbit. In November of the same year, the dog Laika went into space, it was from her that the study of the effect of weightlessness on living organisms began. True, she was no longer destined to return to her native planet. Experiments with overcoming weightlessness continued with the launches of artificial satellites of the Earth and the Sun, the famous flight of Belka and Strelka, the launch of a rocket to Venus, and the establishment of communication with objects far from the Earth. Colossal work was carried out, in the development of a new science - astronautics- a lot of money was invested, and the result for all mankind, who had not been particularly interested in the conquest of extraterrestrial space before, was April 12, 1961 - on this day the first man went into space.

Yuri Gagarin

Once upon a time, Yuri Gagarin could not even imagine that from a simple caster (namely, he mastered this speci alty after school and institute) he would turn into the world's first cosmonaut. His fate was changed by the army, where he served in aviation. After demobilization, Gagarin decided to become a tester of new flight technology - that's what the Soviet Union (unofficially, of course) called spaceships. And a year later, preparations began for the first manned flight into space. Future cosmonauts underwent the most serious medical examinations, trained on the most modern devices at that time, allowing them to adapt to the conditions of weightlessness as much as possible. Four days before the fateful event, it was Yuri Gagarin who was appointed the pilot of the Vostok. On April 12, the first ship with a man on board was launched from Baikonur.

Unforeseen difficulties

But the flight itself did not end quite as planned. Gagarin was in space for a little over an hour, everything went well, the cosmonaut constantly gave a report on the state of his own and the ship, but then the braking system for some reason failed. As a result, the Vostok landed not in a place determined during preparation for the flight, but near a small village in the Saratov region - for her April 12 is clearlybecame a very memorable date. Today, by the way, there is a museum of Yuri Gagarin, where you can learn more about the astronaut himself, and about that fateful flight for the whole Earth.

Establishment of the holiday

On the same day, the whole world heard about the breakthrough in the field of astronautics. Naturally, America immediately tried to repeat the feat of Gagarin. But still, the first word in the exploration of outer space remained with the USSR. April 12, 1962 was the day of memory of the feat of Yuri Gagarin. And after some six years, since 1968, they began to celebrate World Cosmonautics Day. No other human flight beyond the Earth's atmosphere has received such honors, not even Neil Armstrong's famous moon landing.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, no one dared to raise the issue of abolishing this celebration. In 1995, the Russian government officially approved the holiday on April 12. Since 2001, on the world stage, it has become known as the International Day of Human Space Flight.

How is Cosmonautics Day celebrated?

It's hard to talk about some specific traditions of celebrating April 12th. Of course, schools hold various events dedicated not only to the first manned flight into space, but also to the development of astronautics in general. Various public organizations organize round tables, debates and many other options for discussions for young people, where you can not only learn more about the history of the holiday, but also discuss trends in the development of science in this direction. April 12, Cosmonautics Day, is a greatan opportunity to communicate with those who are really interested in space exploration and can tell a lot of new and sometimes completely unexpected things.

One of the good ideas for celebrating Cosmonautics Day at school is an open event, which tells not only about the flight of Yuri Gagarin and preparations for it, but also about the long way to create the first rocket, hypotheses related to space, the evolution of human knowledge about the world around us and much, much more. Some teachers unfairly forget that the result is not always important, the path to it is sometimes much more exciting than dry facts. Moreover, in no case should one belittle the merits of scientists, without whom the development of astronautics would not have been possible in principle.

Conclusion

It is difficult to compare April 12 with such large-scale holidays as the New Year, Children's Day, AIDS Day, celebrated all over the world. Many do not even immediately remember when the first man went into space. But the exploration of extraterrestrial space has given, gives and will give mankind a lot more. So far, we simply do not represent all the possibilities that will open up to us in further research. Perhaps today, dreams of colonizing Mars sound utopian, but a hundred years ago, no one could have imagined that people would be able to leave Earth. Everything is ahead. And in no case should we forget that April 12 is Cosmonautics Day, the day when man challenged the Universe.