Yuri Gagarin — First Man in Space, April 12, 1961

[TomSea]

Yuri Gagarin — First Man in Space

Cosmonautics Day, celebrated on April 12, commemorates the first ever manned flight into outer space by one of the world's most timeless pioneers: Yuri Gagarin.

In November 1957, Laika, a stray dog from Moscow, was launched into space in a 508-kilogram Sputnik-2 capsule and became the first animal to orbit the Earth. Laika's flight proved living beings could survive the conditions of outer space, but could humans undergo a similar test of endurance and live to tell the tale?

Roughly three years after Laika's mission, on Apr. 12, 1961, the 27-year-old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin followed suit and made history as the first man to orbit the Earth. His flight lasted 108 minutes from launch to landing.

Continued: https://themoscowtimes.com/photogalleries/yuri-gagarin-first-man-in-space-57701

A number of pictures at above link including one of that dog they sent into outer space. The article does not say what happened to it.

[thackney]

Although they had long insisted that Laika expired painlessly after about a week in orbit, an official with Moscow’s Institute for Biological Problems leaked the true story in 2002: She died within hours of takeoff from panic and overheating, according to the BBC. Sputnik 2 continued to orbit the Earth for five months, then burned up when it reentered the atmosphere in April 1958.

http://time.com/3546215/laika-1957/