186-566: The 1960s (pronounced "nineteen-sixties", shortened to the " ' 60s " or the " Sixties ") was a decade that began on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. While the achievements of humans being launched into space , orbiting Earth , and walking on the Moon extended exploration, the Sixties are known as the " countercultural decade " in the United States and other Western countries. There
372-495: A bird strike or because of a sudden move to avoid another aircraft. Because of the out-of-date weather report, the crew believed their altitude was higher than it was and could not react properly to bring the MiG-15 out of its spin. Another theory, advanced in 2005 by the original crash investigator, hypothesizes that a cabin air vent was accidentally left open by the crew or the previous pilot, leading to oxygen deprivation and leaving
558-516: A "sensible drinker", his touring schedule placed him in social situations in which he was increasingly expected to drink alcohol. Two years later, he was re-elected as a deputy of the Soviet Union but this time to the Soviet of Nationalities , the upper chamber of the legislature. The following year, he began to re-qualify as a fighter pilot and was backup pilot for his friend Vladimir Komarov on
744-834: A 12-mile (19 km) parade attended by millions of people that concluded at the Red Square. After a short speech, he was bestowed the Hero of the Soviet Union, Order of Lenin , Merited Master of Sports of the Soviet Union and the first Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR . On 15 April, the Soviet Academy of Sciences awarded him with the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Gold Medal, named after the Russian pioneer of space aeronautics . Gagarin had also been awarded four Soviet commemorative medals over
930-456: A bench concealed beneath the plants, and the "field" was again entirely composed of individually transplanted stalks. In response to learning about the famine, the government of Taiwan delivered food aid via parachute drops. In April and May 1961, Liu Shaoqi , then President of the People's Republic of China , concluded after 44 days of field research in villages of Hunan that the causes of
1116-579: A cadet in flight school, Gagarin met Valentina Goryacheva at the May Day celebrations at the Red Square in Moscow. She was a medical technician who had graduated from Orenburg Medical School. They were married on 7 November of the same year, the same day Gagarin graduated from his flight school. Valentina and Yuri had two daughters. Yelena Yurievna Gagarina , born 1959, is an art historian who has worked as
1302-567: A correspondence course programme at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy . Gagarin enrolled in September 1960 and did not earn his specialist diploma until early 1968. Gagarin was also subjected to experiments that were designed to test physical and psychological endurance, including oxygen starvation tests in which the cosmonauts were locked in an isolation chamber and the air slowly pumped out. He also trained for
1488-482: A demotion he worked hard to lift. He was temporarily relieved of duties to focus on academics with the promise that he would be able to resume flight training. On 17 February 1968, Gagarin successfully defended his aerospace engineering thesis on the subject of spaceplane aerodynamic configuration and graduated cum laude from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy. In 1957, while
1674-465: A discussion with Field Marshal Montgomery in Autumn 1961, that "unnatural deaths" exceeded 5 million in 1960–1961, according to a declassified CIA report. Due to the lack of food and incentive to marry at that time, according to China's official statistics, China's population in 1961 was about 658,590,000, some 14,580,000 lower than in 1959. The birth rate decreased from 2.922% (1958) to 2.086% (1960) and
1860-515: A family to eat, espousing the belief that the Great Leap Forward should not be implemented, or merely not working hard enough were all seen as forms of "conservative rightism". Peasants became unable to speak openly on collectivization and state grain purchase. With a culture of fear and recrimination at both a local and official level, speaking and acting against the famine became a seemingly impossible task. The influence of local government in
2046-468: A field prepared especially for Mao, which appeared to be a bumper crop. The local officials became trapped by these sham demonstrations to Mao, and exhorted the peasants to reach unattainable goals, by "deep ploughing and close planting", among other techniques. This ended up making things much worse; the crop failed completely, leaving barren fields. No one was in a position to challenge Mao's ideas as incorrect, so peasants went to extreme lengths to keep up
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#17328479795912232-448: A full-size mockup of the Vostok capsule. Gagarin, Nikolayev, Popovich, and Titov all received excellent marks on the first day of testing, in which they were required to describe the various phases of the mission followed by questions from the commission. On the second day, they were given a written examination, following which the special commission ranked Gagarin as the best candidate. He and
2418-526: A high-level national hero might be killed, Soviet officials banned Gagarin from participating in further spaceflights. After completing training at the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy in February 1968, he was again allowed to fly regular aircraft. However, Gagarin died five weeks later, when the MiG-15 that he was piloting with flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin crashed near the town of Kirzhach . Gagarin
2604-612: A musical. There are statues of Gagarin and monuments to him located in the town named after him as well as in Orenburg , Cheboksary , Irkutsk , Izhevsk , Komsomolsk-on-Amur , and Yoshkar-Ola in Russia, as well as in Nicosia , Cyprus, Druzhkivka , Ukraine, Karaganda , Kazakhstan, and Tiraspol , Moldova. On 4 June 1980, Monument to Yuri Gagarin in Gagarin Square, Leninsky Avenue, Moscow ,
2790-526: A new investigation. In April 2011, documents from a 1968 commission set up by the Central Committee of the Communist Party to investigate the accident were declassified. The documents revealed that the commission's original conclusion was that Gagarin or Seryogin had manoeuvred sharply, either to avoid a weather balloon or to avoid "entry into the upper limit of the first layer of cloud cover", leading
2976-609: A night in late June 1969, LGBT people resisted, for the first time, a police raid, and rebelled openly in the streets. This uprising called the Stonewall riots began a new period of the LGBT rights movement that in the next decade would cause dramatic change both inside the LGBT community and in the mainstream American culture. The rapid rise of a " New Left " applied the class perspective of Marxism to postwar America but had little organizational connection with older Marxist organizations such as
3162-523: A non-government archive of meteorological data from 350 weather stations across China, and the droughts, floods, and temperatures during 1958–1961 were within the typical patterns for China. According to Basil Ashton: Many foreign observers felt that these reports of weather-related crop failures were designed to cover up political factors that had led to poor agricultural performance. They also suspected that local officials tended to exaggerate such reports to obtain more state assistance or tax relief. Clearly,
3348-564: A part in the role of "turning heads on". Psychedelic influenced the music, artwork and films of the decade, and a number of prominent musicians died of drug overdoses (see 27 Club ). There was a growing interest in Eastern religions and philosophy, and many attempts were made to found communes, which varied from supporting free love to religious puritanism. Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968)
3534-588: A part-time dock labourer on the Volga River . In 1955, Gagarin was accepted to the First Chkalov Higher Air Force Pilots School in Orenburg . He initially began training on the Yak-18 already familiar to him and later graduated to training on the MiG-15 in February 1956. Gagarin twice struggled to land the two-seater trainer aircraft, and risked dismissal from pilot training. However,
3720-502: A party secretary and deputy-governor of the province, heard rumours of a famine breaking out in Anhui and disagreed with many of Zeng's policies. Zeng reported Zhang to Mao for such speculations. As a result, Mao labeled Zhang "a member of the 'Peng Dehuai anti-Party military clique ' " and he was purged from the local party. Zeng was unable to report on the famine when it became an emergency situation, as this would prove his hypocrisy. For this he
3906-417: A passage that upholds the official Soviet position on religious belief: "The manned space flight was a crushing blow to the churchmen. In the streams of letters that addressed to me, I was pleased to read confessions in which believers, impressed by the achievements of science, renounced God, agreed that there is no god and everything connected with his name is fiction and nonsense". On 27 March 1968, while on
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#17328479795914092-595: A radio, television, refrigerator and motor vehicles. The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries were improving quickly after rebuilding from WWII. Real GDP growth averaged 6% a year during the second half of the decade; overall, the worldwide economy prospered in the 1960s with expansion of the middle class and the increase of new domestic technology. In the United Kingdom, the Labour Party gained power in 1964 with Harold Wilson as prime minister through most of
4278-501: A reputation as an adept public figure and was noted for his charismatic smile. On 15 April 1961, accompanied by officials from the Soviet Academy of Sciences, he answered questions at a press conference in Moscow reportedly attended by 1,000 reporters. Gagarin visited the United Kingdom three months after the Vostok 1 mission, going to London and Manchester . While in Manchester, despite heavy rain, he refused an umbrella, insisted that
4464-628: A result of a series of natural disasters compounded by several planning errors, reflected by the name "Three Years of Natural Disasters". During the " Boluan Fanzheng " period in June 1981, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officially changed the name to "Three Years of Difficulty", and stated that the famine was mainly due to the mistakes of the Great Leap Forward as well as the Anti-Rightist Campaign , in addition to some natural disasters and
4650-417: A result of the famine. To survive, people had to resort to every possible means, from eating soil and poisons to stealing and killing and even to eating human flesh. Yang Jisheng, a retired Chinese reporter, said "Parents ate their own kids. Kids ate their own parents. And we couldn't have imagined there was still grain in the warehouses. At the worst time, the government was still exporting grain." Due to
4836-445: A result, year-over-year grain production fell dramatically. The harvest was down by 15% in 1959 compared to 1958, and by 1960, it was at 70% of its 1958 level. Specifically, according to China's governmental data, crop production decreased from 200 million tons (or 400 billion jin ) in 1958 to 170 million tons (or 340 billion jin) in 1959, and to 143.5 million tons (or 287 billion jin) in 1960. The excess mortality associated with
5022-513: A routine training flight from Chkalovsky air base, Gagarin and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin died when their MiG-15UTI crashed near the town of Kirzhach . The bodies of Gagarin and Seryogin were cremated and their ashes interred in the walls of the Kremlin . Wrapped in secrecy, the cause of the crash that killed Gagarin is uncertain and became the subject of speculation, including several conspiracy theories. At least three investigations into
5208-680: A series of subsequent orders issued until June. Gagarin began training at the Khodynka Airfield in central Moscow on 15 March 1960. The training regimen involved vigorous and repetitive physical exercises which Alexei Leonov , a member of the initial group of twelve, described as akin to training for the Olympic Games . In April 1960, they began parachute training in Saratov Oblast and each man completed about 40 to 50 jumps from both low and high altitude, over both land and water. Gagarin
5394-521: A speech given before a joint session of Congress on 25 May 1961: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." The Soviet program lost its sense of direction with the death of chief designer Sergey Korolyov in 1966. Political pressure, conflicts between different design bureaus, and engineering problems caused by an inadequate budget would doom
5580-432: A well-developed imagination; quick reactions; persevering, prepares himself painstakingly for his activities and training exercises, handles celestial mechanics and mathematical formulae with ease as well as excels in higher mathematics; does not feel constrained when he has to defend his point of view if he considers himself right; appears that he understands life better than a lot of his friends. The Vanguard Six were given
5766-501: A wide range of policies which embraced Keynesian economics (which he is the first president to do so). Among these policies included a 7% tax credit for businesses that invest in new plants and equipment, Income tax cuts and an increase in the federal minimum wage. Although, the 1960s were not perfect. The government routinely produced fiscal deficits (as a result of the tax cuts and increased expenditure embarked under Kennedy), with only one surplus during this time period (as opposed to
1960s - Misplaced Pages Continue
5952-477: A widespread, eclectic collection of newspapers served as a unifying medium for the counterculture. The movement was also marked by the first widespread, socially accepted drug use (including LSD and marijuana ) and psychedelic music. The war in Vietnam would eventually lead to a commitment of over half a million American troops, resulting in over 58,500 American deaths and producing a large-scale antiwar movement in
6138-539: A window and jumped off a second floor balcony. The resulting injury left a permanent scar above his left eyebrow. In his youth Gagarin was a keen sportsman and played ice hockey as a goalkeeper. He was also a basketball fan and coached the Saratov Industrial Technical School team, as well as being a referee. Some Soviet sources have said that Gagarin commented during his space flight, "I don't see any god up here.", though no such words appear in
6324-554: Is called Yuri Gagarin Street . The town of Gagarin, Armenia was renamed in his honour in 1961. Gagarin has been honoured on the Moon by astronauts and astronomers. During the American space programme's Apollo 11 mission in 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left a memorial satchel containing medals commemorating Gagarin and Komarov on the Moon's surface. In 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin left
6510-691: Is held annually to commemorate milestones in space exploration. In 2011, it was declared the International Day of Human Space Flight by the United Nations. A number of buildings and locations have been named for Gagarin, mostly in Russia but also in other Soviet republics. The Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City was named on 30 April 1968. The launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome from which Sputnik 1 and Vostok 1 were launched
6696-618: Is memorialised in music; a cycle of Soviet patriotic songs titled The Constellation Gagarin ( Созвездье Гагарина , Sozvezdie Gagarina ) was written by Aleksandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov in 1970–1971. The most famous of these songs refers to Gagarin's poyekhali! : in the lyrics, "He said 'let's go!' He waved his hand". He was the inspiration for the pieces "Hey Gagarin" by Jean-Michel Jarre on Métamorphoses , "Gagarin" by Public Service Broadcasting , and "Gagarin, I loved you" by Undervud . Vessels have been named for Gagarin; Soviet tracking ship Kosmonavt Yuriy Gagarin
6882-681: Is now known as Gagarin's Start . Gagarin Raion in Sevastopol was named after him during the period of the Soviet Union. The Russian Air Force Academy was renamed the Gagarin Air Force Academy in 1968. The town of Gzhatsk where he lived in Smolensk Oblast was renamed Gagarin after his death in 1968, and has since become home to numerous museums and monuments to him. A street in Warsaw, Poland,
7068-582: Is that excessive eating took place in the mess halls, and that this directly led to a worsening of the famine. If excessive eating had not taken place, one scholar argued, "the worst of the Great Leap Famine could still have been avoided in mid-1959". However, dire hunger did not set in to places like Da Fo village until 1960, and the public dining hall participation rate was found not to be a meaningful cause of famine in Anhui and Jiangxi . In Da Fo village, "food output did not decline in reality, but there
7254-542: The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the world governing body for setting standards and keeping records in the field, which at the time required that the pilot land with the craft. Gagarin and Soviet officials initially refused to admit that he had not landed with his spacecraft, an omission which became apparent after Titov's flight on Vostok 2 four months later. Gagarin's spaceflight records were nonetheless certified and reaffirmed by
7440-624: The Chicano Movement addressed what it perceived to be negative ethnic stereotypes of Mexicans in mass media and the American consciousness. It did so through the creation of works of literary and visual art that validated Mexican-American ethnicity and culture. Chicanos fought to end social stigmas such as the usage of the Spanish language and advocated official bilingualism in federal and state governments. The Chicano Movement also addressed discrimination in public and private institutions. Early in
7626-529: The Communist Party , and even went as far as to reject organized labor as the basis of a unified left-wing movement. Sympathetic to the ideology of C. Wright Mills , the New Left differed from the traditional left in its resistance to dogma and its emphasis on personal as well as societal change. Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) became the organizational focus of the New Left and was the prime mover behind
1960s - Misplaced Pages Continue
7812-791: The Fair Housing Act of 1968 that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. Another large ethnic minority group, the Mexican-Americans , are among other Hispanics in the U.S. who fought to end racial discrimination and socioeconomic disparity. The largest Mexican-American populations were in the Southwestern United States, such as California with over 1 million Chicanos in Los Angeles alone, and Texas where Jim Crow laws included Mexican-Americans as "non-white" in some instances to be legally segregated. Socially,
7998-501: The Gagarin Cup . In a 2010 Space Foundation survey, Gagarin was ranked as the sixth-most-popular space hero, tied with the fictional character James T. Kirk from Star Trek . A Russian docudrama titled Gagarin: First in Space was released in 2013. Previous attempts at portraying Gagarin were disallowed; his family took legal action over his portrayal in a fictional drama and vetoed
8184-748: The Hero of Labour award from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam , the Italian Columbus Day Medal, and a Gold Medal from the British Interplanetary Society . President Jânio Quadros of Brazil decorated Gagarin on 2 August 1961 with the Order of Aeronautical Merit , Commander grade. During a tour of Egypt in late January 1962, Gagarin received the Order of the Nile and the golden keys to
8370-590: The National Organization for Women . In 1968, " Women's Liberation " became a household term as, for the first time, the new women's movement eclipsed the civil rights movement when New York Radical Women , led by Robin Morgan , protested the annual Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey . The movement continued throughout the next decades. Gloria Steinem was a key feminist. The United States, in
8556-492: The Recession of 1969–1970 . It lasted a total of 106 months, which made it the longest recorded economic expansion in the history of the United States until the 1990s United States boom . On January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy became the president of the United States. In his campaign, John F. Kennedy promised to "get America moving again." His goal was economic growth of 4–6% per year and unemployment below 4%.To do this, he proposed
8742-570: The Red Flag Canal , made positive contributions to irrigation, but researchers have pointed out that the massive hydraulic construction project led to many deaths due to starvation, epidemics, and drowning, which contributed to the famine. However, there have been disagreements on the significance of the drought and floods in causing the Great Famine. According to published data from Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences ( 中国气象科学研究院 ),
8928-548: The Russian Orthodox Church as a child, and a 2011 Foma magazine article quoted the rector of the Orthodox Church in Star City saying, "Gagarin baptized his elder daughter Yelena shortly before his space flight; and his family used to celebrate Christmas and Easter and keep icons in the house". Nevertheless, Gagarin's officially sanctioned autobiography, released by the USSR's state publishing house in 1961, includes
9114-601: The Sino-Soviet split . Academic studies on the Great Chinese Famine also became more active in mainland China after 1980, when the government started to release some demographic data to the public. A number of high-ranking Chinese officials had expressed their views on the famine: Researchers outside China have argued that the massive institutional and policy changes which accompanied the Great Leap Forward were
9300-599: The Soyuz 1 flight after five years without piloting duty. Kamanin had opposed Gagarin's reassignment to cosmonaut training; he had gained weight and his flying skills had deteriorated. Despite this, he remained a strong contender for Soyuz 1 until he was replaced by Komarov in April 1966 and reassigned to Soyuz 3 . The Soyuz 1 launch was rushed due to implicit political pressures and despite Gagarin's protests that additional safety precautions were necessary. Gagarin accompanied Komarov to
9486-584: The Vanguard Six or Sochi Six, from which the first cosmonauts of the Vostok programme would be chosen. The other members of the group were Anatoly Kartashov , Andriyan Nikolayev , Pavel Popovich , Gherman Titov , and Valentin Varlamov . However, Kartashov and Varlamov were injured and replaced by Khrunov and Grigory Nelyubov . As several of the candidates selected for the programme including Gagarin did not have higher education degrees, they were enrolled in
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#17328479795919672-564: The Vostok 6 mission. In 1965, Soviets launched the first probe to hit another planet of the Solar System ( Venus ), Venera 3 , and the first probe to make a soft landing on and transmit from the surface of the Moon, Luna 9 . In March 1966, the Soviet Union launched Luna 10 , which became the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon, and in September 1968, Zond 5 flew the first terrestrial beings, including two tortoises, to circumnavigate
9858-641: The Vostok programme was overseen by the Central Flight Medical Commission led by Major General Konstantin Fyodorovich Borodin of the Soviet Army Medical Service. He underwent physical and psychological testing conducted at Central Aviation Scientific-Research Hospital, in Moscow, commanded by Colonel A.S. Usanov, a member of the commission. The commission also included Colonel Yevgeniy Anatoliyevich Karpov, who later commanded
10044-436: The director general of the Moscow Kremlin Museums since 2001; and Galina Yurievna Gagarina, born 1961, is a professor of economics and the department chair at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics in Moscow. Following his rise to fame, at a Black Sea resort in September 1961, he was reportedly caught by his wife during a liaison with a nurse who had aided him after a boating incident. He attempted to escape through
10230-421: The first humans landed on the Moon . The Apollo 11 mission, launched on 16 July 1969, carried mission Commander Neil Armstrong , Command Module Pilot Michael Collins , and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin , and Aldrin and Armstrong flew the Lunar Module Eagle to the lunar surface. Apollo 11 fulfilled President John F. Kennedy 's goal of reaching the Moon by the end of the 1960s, which he had expressed during
10416-510: The possibility of causing World War III . However, after negotiations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R, both agreed to withdraw their weapons averting potential nuclear warfare . After U.S. president Kennedy's assassination , direct tensions between the superpower countries of the United States and the Soviet Union developed into a contest with proxy wars , insurgency funding, puppet governments and other overall influence mainly in Latin America , Africa, and Asia . This " Cold War " dominated
10602-420: The 1947 Mendez v. Westminster U.S. Supreme Court ruling which declared that segregating children of "Mexican and Latin descent" was unconstitutional and the 1954 Hernandez v. Texas ruling which declared that Mexican Americans and other racial groups in the United States were entitled to equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution . The most prominent civil-rights organization in
10788-592: The 1950s which produced 3). Furthermore, by 1966 inflation began to climb, which is a general trend that continued into the 1970's . By the end of the decade under Nixon, the combined inflation and unemployment rate known as the misery index (economics) had exploded to nearly 10% with inflation at 6.2% and unemployment at 3.5% and by 1975 the misery index was almost 20%. By the end of the decade, median family income had risen from $ 8,540 in 1963 to $ 10,770 by 1969. Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include: Natural: Non-natural: In
10974-425: The 1960s began, American cars showed a rapid rejection of 1950s styling excess, and would remain relatively clean and boxy for the entire decade. The horsepower race reached its climax in the late 1960s, with muscle cars sold by most makes. The compact Ford Mustang , launched in 1964, was one of the decade's greatest successes. The " Big Three " American automakers enjoyed their highest ever sales and profitability in
11160-413: The 1960s, but the demise of Studebaker in 1966 left American Motors Corporation as the last significant independent. The decade would see the car market split into different size classes for the first time, and model lineups now included compact and mid-sized cars in addition to full-sized ones. The popular modern hatchback, with front-wheel-drive and a two-box configuration, was born in 1965 with
11346-423: The 1960s. The Soviets sent the first man, Yuri Gagarin , into outer space during the Vostok 1 mission on 12 April 1961, and scored a host of other successes, but by the middle of the decade the U.S. was taking the lead. In May 1961, President Kennedy set the goal for the United States of landing a man on the Moon by the end of the 1960s. In June 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space during
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#173284797959111532-506: The Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong , such as inefficient distribution of food within the nation's planned economy; requiring the use of poor agricultural techniques; the Four Pests campaign that reduced sparrow populations (which disrupted the ecosystem); over-reporting of grain production; and ordering millions of farmers to switch to iron and steel production. During the Seven Thousand Cadres Conference in early 1962, Liu Shaoqi , then President of China , formally attributed 30% of
11718-418: The Draft ", " draft dodger ", " conscientious objector ", and " Vietnam vet ". Voter age-limits were challenged by the phrase: "If you're old enough to die for your country, you're old enough to vote." Beginning in the mid-1950s and continuing into the late 1960s, African Americans in the United States organized a movement to end legalized racial discrimination and obtain voting rights . This article covers
11904-429: The FAI, which revised its rules, and acknowledged that the crucial steps of the safe launch, orbit, and return of the pilot had been accomplished. Gagarin is internationally recognised as the first human in space and first to orbit the Earth. Gagarin's flight was a triumph for the Soviet space programme and he became a national hero of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, as well as a worldwide celebrity. Newspapers around
12090-616: The Famine was due to government policies while the rest (31%) was due to natural disasters. Local party leaders, for their part, conspired to cover up shortfalls and reassign blame in order to protect their own lives and positions. Mao was kept unaware of some of the starvation of villagers in the rural areas who were suffering, as the birth rate began to plummet and deaths increased in 1958 and 1959. In 1960, as gestures of solidarity, Mao ate no meat for seven months and Zhou Enlai cut his monthly grain consumption. In visits to Henan province in 1958, Mao observed what local officials claimed
12276-448: The Great Leap Forward as well as the famine forced Mao Zedong to withdraw from active decision-making within the CCP and the central government, and turn various future responsibilities over to Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping . A series of economic reforms were carried out by Liu and Deng and others, including policies such as sanzi yibao (三自一包) which allowed free market and household responsibility for agricultural production. However,
12462-431: The Great Leap Forward. During the Great Leap Forward, farming was organized into people's communes and the cultivation of individual plots was forbidden. Previously farmers cultivated plots of land given to them by the government. The Great Leap Forward led to the agricultural economy being increasingly centrally planned. Regional Party leaders were given production quotas for the communes under their control. Their output
12648-449: The Mexican-American community, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), was founded in 1968. Although modeled after the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund , MALDEF has also taken on many of the functions of other organizations, including political advocacy and training of local leaders. Meanwhile, Puerto Ricans in the U.S. mainland fought against racism, police brutality and socioeconomic problems affecting
12834-405: The Moon. The deaths of astronauts Gus Grissom , Ed White , and Roger B. Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire on 27 January 1967, put a temporary hold on the U.S. space program, but afterward progress was steady, with the Apollo 8 crew ( Frank Borman , Jim Lovell , William Anders ) being the first crewed mission to orbit another celestial body (the Moon) during Christmas of 1968. On 20 July 1969,
13020-493: The Party believed that they had an excess of grain. On the contrary, the crop yields were lower than average. For instance, Beijing believed that "in 1960 state granaries would have 50 billion jin of grain", when they actually contained 12.7 billion jin. The effects of the illusion of superabundance were significant, leaving some historians to argue that it was the major cause of much of the starvation throughout China. Yang Dali argued that there were three main consequences from
13206-448: The Red Army find mines buried in the roads by the fleeing German army. In 1946, the family moved to Gzhatsk, where Gagarin continued his education. Yuri and Boris were enrolled at a crude school built in the town and run by a young woman who volunteered to be the teacher. They learned to read using a discarded Soviet military manual. A former Soviet airman later joined the school to teach maths and science, Yuri's favourite subjects. Yuri
13392-702: The Soviet Union . Hailing from the village of Klushino in the Russian SFSR , Gagarin was a foundryman at a steel plant in Lyubertsy in his youth. He later joined the Soviet Air Forces as a pilot and was stationed at the Luostari Air Base , near the Norway–Soviet Union border , before his selection for the Soviet space programme alongside five other cosmonauts. Following his spaceflight, Gagarin became
13578-567: The Soviet attempt to land men on the Moon. Shortly after the American Apollo 1 disaster, tragedy struck the Soviet program when cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed when the parachutes on his Soyuz 1 flight failed. A succession of uncrewed American and Soviet probes traveled to the Moon, Venus , and Mars during the 1960s, and commercial satellites also came into use. Shinkansen , the world's first high-speed rail service began in 1964. As
13764-554: The United States known as the British Invasion ), the folk music revival , to the poetic lyrics of Bob Dylan . In the United States the Sixties were also called the "cultural decade" while in the United Kingdom (especially London) it was called the Swinging Sixties . The United States had four presidents that served during the decade; Dwight D. Eisenhower , John F. Kennedy , Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon . Eisenhower
13950-724: The United States. In 1962, Gagarin began serving as a deputy to the Soviet of the Union , and was elected to the Central Committee of the Young Communist League . He later returned to Star City , the cosmonaut facility, where he spent several years working on designs for a reusable spacecraft. He became a lieutenant colonel of the Soviet Air Forces on 12 June 1962, and received the rank of colonel on 6 November 1963. On 20 December, Gagarin became Deputy Training Director of
14136-414: The United States. As late as the end of 1965, few Americans protested the American involvement in Vietnam, but as the war dragged on and the body count continued to climb, civil unrest escalated. Students became a powerful and disruptive force and university campuses sparked a national debate over the war. As the movement's ideals spread beyond college campuses, doubts about the war also began to appear within
14322-726: The Western market, and popular economy models such as the Toyota Corolla , Datsun 510 , and the first popular Japanese sports car, the Datsun 240Z , were released in the mid- to late-1960s. Mopeds and Scooters gains popularity in these decade, with Honda Super Cub in United States, Japan and Europe, Mitsubishi Silver Pigeon in Japan and Vespa , Kreidler Florett , Zundapp and Sachs mopeds in Western Europe. The counterculture movement dominated
14508-585: The Yellow River which affected part of Henan Province and Shandong Province . It was reported as the most severe flood of the Yellow River since 1933. In July 1958, the Yellow River flood affected 741,000 people in 1708 villages and inundated over 3.04 million mu (over half a million acres ) of cultivated fields. The largest torrent of the flood was smoothly directed into the Bohai Sea on 27 July, and
14694-626: The administration itself. A mass movement began rising in opposition to the Vietnam War , including the National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam 's 1967 march to the United Nations and its March on the Pentagon , the 1968 Democratic National Convention protests at which the slogan " The whole world is watching " became famous, and continuing in the massive Moratorium protests in 1969 as well as
14880-426: The call sign Kedr ( Кедр , Siberian pine or cedar ). The radio communication between the launch control room and Gagarin included the following dialogue at the moment of rocket launch: Korolev: Preliminary stage ... intermediate... main... LIFT-OFF! We wish you a good flight. Everything's all right. Gagarin: Off we go! Goodbye, until [we meet] soon, dear friends. Gagarin's farewell to Korolev using
15066-531: The charade; some grew seedlings in their bedding and coats and, after the seedlings quickly sprouted, "planted" them in fields—the bedding made the plants look high and healthy. The post office in Xinyang confiscated 1,200 outgoing letters begging for help. Yang Jisheng, a retired Chinese reporter, said: When the Guangshan County post office discovered an anonymous letter to Beijing disclosing starvation deaths,
15252-542: The civil rights movement were passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that restored and protected voting rights, the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965 that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups, and
15438-478: The commander of the regiment decided to give him another chance at landing. Gagarin's flight instructor gave him a cushion to sit on, which improved his view from the cockpit, and he landed successfully. Having completed his evaluation in a trainer aircraft, Gagarin began flying solo in 1957. On 5 November 1957, Gagarin was commissioned a lieutenant in the Soviet Air Forces , having accumulated 166 hours and 47 minutes of flight time. He graduated from flight school
15624-432: The commission approved the proposal and moved on to other last-minute logistical issues. It was assumed that in the event Gagarin developed health problems prior to liftoff, Titov would take his place, with Nelyubov acting as his backup. On 12 April 1961, at 6:07 am UTC , the Vostok 3KA-3 ( Vostok 1 ) spacecraft was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome . Aboard was Gagarin, the first human to travel into space, using
15810-441: The conservatism and social conformity of the 1950s, and the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam. The youth involved in the popular social aspects of the movement became known as hippies . These groups created a movement toward liberation in society, including the sexual revolution , questioning authority and government, and demanding more freedoms and rights for women and minorities. The Underground Press ,
15996-433: The cosmonaut training facility. Soviet officials, including Kamanin, tried to keep Gagarin away from any flights, being worried about losing their hero in an accident noting that he was "too dear to mankind to risk his life for the sake of an ordinary space flight". Kamanin was also concerned by Gagarin's drinking and believed the sudden rise to fame had taken its toll on the cosmonaut. While acquaintances say Gagarin had been
16182-523: The country, especially in U.S.–Mexican border towns and East Coast cities like New York City, and the growth of the Cuban American community in Miami, Florida. The multitude of discrimination at this time represented an inhuman side to a society that in the 1960s was upheld as a world and industry leader. The issues of civil rights and warfare became major points of reflection of virtue and democracy, what once
16368-474: The course of his career. He was honoured as a Hero of Socialist Labour from Czechoslovakia on 29 April 1961, and Hero of Socialist Labour (Bulgaria, including the Order of Georgi Dimitrov ) the same year. On the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the Cuban Revolution (26 July), President Osvaldo Dorticos of Cuba presented him with the first Order of Playa Girón , a newly created medal. Gagarin
16554-686: The crash were conducted separately by the Air Force, official government commissions, and the KGB . According to a biography of Gagarin by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony , Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin , the KGB worked "not just alongside the Air Force and the official commission members but against them." The KGB's report, declassified in March 2003, claimed that the actions of airbase personnel contributed to
16740-416: The crash. The report states that an air-traffic controller provided Gagarin with outdated weather information and that by the time of his flight, conditions had deteriorated significantly. Ground crew also left external fuel tanks attached to the aircraft. Gagarin's planned flight activities needed clear weather and no outboard tanks. The investigation concluded Gagarin's aircraft entered a spin , either due to
16926-471: The crew incapable of controlling the aircraft. A similar theory, published in Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine, is that the crew detected the open vent and followed procedure by executing a rapid dive to a lower altitude. This dive caused them to lose consciousness and crash. On 12 April 2007, the Kremlin vetoed a new investigation into the death of Gagarin. Government officials said they saw no reason to begin
17112-468: The deadliest famine and one of the greatest man-made disasters in human history, with an estimated death toll due to starvation that ranges in the tens of millions (15 to 55 million). The most stricken provinces were Anhui (18% dead), Chongqing (15%), Sichuan (13%), Guizhou (11%) and Hunan (8%). The major contributing factors in the famine were the policies of the Great Leap Forward (1958 to 1962) and people's communes , launched by Chairman of
17298-468: The death rate increased from 1.198% (1958) to 2.543% (1960), while the average numbers for 1962–1965 are about 4% and 1%, respectively. The mortality in the birth and death rates both peaked in 1961 and began recovering rapidly after that, as shown on the chart of census data displayed here. Lu Baoguo, a Xinhua reporter based in Xinyang , explained to Yang Jisheng why he never reported on his experience: In
17484-456: The decade included: During the 1960s the United States was in the postwar economic boom . The 1960s are remembered as a time period of rapid workforce growth (roughly 33% between February 1961 and December 1969), tax cuts , low unemployment, rapid GDP growth, gains in productivity and generally low inflation. After the Recession of 1960–1961 the United States experienced sustained rapid economic growth which began in February 1961 and ended with
17670-512: The decade. In France, the protests of 1968 led to President Charles de Gaulle temporarily fleeing the country. Italy formed its first left-of-center government in March 1962 with Aldo Moro becoming prime minister in 1963. Soviet leaders during the decade were Nikita Khrushchev until 1964 and Leonid Brezhnev . During the 1960s, the world population increased from 3.0 to 3.7 billion people. There were approximately 1.15 billion births and 500 million deaths. Prominent coups d'état of
17856-592: The deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre , which was later named after him. He was also elected as a deputy of the Soviet of the Union in 1962 and then to the Soviet of Nationalities , respectively the lower and upper chambers of the Supreme Soviet . Vostok 1 was Gagarin's only spaceflight, but he served as the backup crew to Soyuz 1 , which ended in a fatal crash, killing his friend and fellow cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov . Fearful that
18042-416: The destruction of many historical and cultural buildings, artifacts and materials all of which would last until the death of Mao Zedong . By the end of the 1950s , post-war reconstructed Europe began an economic boom . World War II had closed up social classes with remnants of the old feudal gentry disappearing. A developing upper-working-class (a newly redefined middle-class) in Western Europe could afford
18228-555: The disagreement between Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping over economic and social policy grew larger. In 1963, Mao launched the Socialist Education Movement and in 1966, he launched the Cultural Revolution , during which Liu was accused of being a traitor and enemy agent for attributing only 30% to natural calamities. Liu was beaten and denied medicine for diabetes and pneumonia ; he died in 1969. Deng
18414-622: The drought in 1960 was not uncommon and its severity was only considered "mild" compared to that in other years—it was less serious than those in 1955, 1963, 1965–1967, and so on. Moreover, Yang Jisheng, a senior journalist from Xinhua News Agency , reports that Xue Muqiao , then head of the National Statistics Bureau of China , said in 1958, "We give whatever figures the upper-level wants" to overstate natural disasters and relieve official responsibility for deaths due to starvation. Yang claimed that he investigated other sources including
18600-446: The end of Mao's Great Leap Forward in 1962 that led to many Chinese to die from the deadliest famine in human history and the start of the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. Its stated goal was to preserve Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society , leading to the arrests of a many Chinese politicians, the killings of millions of civilians and ethnic minorities, and
18786-536: The end of traditional collective action and the beginning of a new era to be dominated mainly by the so-called new social movements . After the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro , the United States attempted to depose the new leader by training Cuban exiles and invading the island of Cuba . This led to Cuba to ally itself to the Soviet Union, a hostile enemy to the United States, resulting in an international crisis when Cuba hosted Soviet ballistic missiles similar to Turkey hosting American missiles, which brought
18972-567: The facts of Negro life in the South and the big cities of the North. The proclaimed peaceful intentions of the United States contradicted its economic and military investments in the Cold War status quo." These intolerable issues became too visible to ignore therefore its repercussions were feared greatly, the realization that we as individuals take the responsibility for encounter and resolution in our lives issues
19158-533: The family was allowed to build a mud hut measuring approximately 3 by 3 metres (10 by 10 ft), where they spent 21 months until the end of the occupation. During this period, Yuri became a saboteur, especially after one of the German soldiers, called "the Devil" by the children, tried to hang his younger brother Boris on an apple tree using the boy's scarf. In retaliation, Yuri sabotaged the soldier's work; he poured soil into
19344-463: The famine can be seen in the comparison between the provinces of Anhui and Jiangxi. Anhui, having a radical pro-Mao government, was led by Zeng Xisheng who was "dictatorial", with ties to Mao. Zeng firmly believed in the Great Leap Forward and tried to build relationships with higher officials rather than maintain local ties. Zeng proposed agricultural projects without consulting colleagues, which caused Anhui's agriculture to fail terribly. Zhang Kaifan,
19530-485: The famine has been estimated by former CCP officials and international experts, with most giving a number in the range of 15–55 million deaths. The Maoist author Gao Mobo claims that anti-communist writers prefer to stretch the death toll number as high as possible while those sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Revolution prefer to see the number as low as possible. Mao Zedong himself suggested, in
19716-517: The famine than did higher rungs of government. As the Great Leap Forward progressed, many provincial leaders began aligning themselves with Mao and higher Party leaders. Local leaders were forced to choose between doing what was best for their community and guarding their reputation politically. Landlords began "denouncing any opposition as 'conservative rightism ' ", which is defined broadly as anything anti-communist. In an environment of conspiracy theories directed against peasants, saving extra grain for
19902-525: The famine that have been used by the Chinese government. Initially, the usual name was "Three Years of Natural Disasters" ( 三年自然灾害 ). In June 1981, this was changed to "Three Years of Difficulty" ( 三年困难时期 ), thus no longer blaming nature alone for the famine. Policy changes affecting how farming was organized coincided with droughts and floods. Weather had been relatively mild for much of the 1950s, but became particularly bad by 1959, driving down crop yields. As
20088-520: The famine to natural disasters and 70% to man-made errors ("三分天灾, 七分人祸"). After the launch of Reforms and Opening Up , the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officially stated in June 1981 that the famine was mainly due to the mistakes of the Great Leap Forward as well as the Anti-Rightist Campaign , in addition to some natural disasters and the Sino-Soviet split . Aside from the "Three Years of Great Famine" ( 三年大饥荒 ), there are two names for
20274-519: The famine were 30% natural disaster and 70% human error (三分天灾, 七分人祸). In January and February 1962, the " 7000 Cadres Conference " took place in Beijing , which was attended by more than 7,000 CCP officials nationwide. During the conference, Liu formally announced his conclusion on the causes of the great famine, while the Great Leap Forward was declared "over" by the Chinese Communist Party. The policies of Mao Zedong were criticized. The failure of
20460-464: The famine were not due to unusual weather, but to massive, poorly planned and poorly executed irrigation works which were part of the Great Leap Forward. At this time, encouraged by Mao Zedong, people in China were building a large number of dams and thousands of kilometers of new irrigation canals in an attempt to move water from wet areas to areas that were experiencing drought. Some of the works, such as
20646-500: The gates of Cairo . On 22 October 1963, Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova were honoured with the Order of Karl Marx from the German Democratic Republic . The date of Gagarin's space flight, 12 April, has been commemorated. Since 1962, it has been celebrated first in the USSR and since 1991 in Russia and some other former Soviet republics as Cosmonautics Day . Since 2000, Yuri's Night , an international celebration,
20832-546: The globe published his biography and details of his flight. He was escorted in a long motorcade of high-ranking officials through the streets of Moscow to the Kremlin where, in a lavish ceremony, Nikita Khrushchev awarded him the title Hero of the Soviet Union . Other cities in the Soviet Union also held mass demonstrations, the scale of which were second only to the World War II Victory Parades . Gagarin gained
21018-470: The government declared a "victory over the flood" after sending a rescue team of over 2 million people. The spokesperson of the Flood Prevention Center of Chinese government stated on 27 July 1958, that: This year we defeated the large flood without division of torrents or breaks on dams, which secures the big harvest of the crops. This is yet another miracle created by the Chinese people. But
21204-416: The government was encouraged to report success and hide failures. Because the 2 million farm laborers from the two provinces were ordered away from the fields to serve as a rescue team and were repairing the banks of the river instead of tending to their fields, "crops are neglected and much of the harvest is left to rot in the fields". In contrast, historian Frank Dikötter has argued that most floods during
21390-434: The granaries of Henan and Hebei had been opened, no one need have died. As people were dying in large numbers around them, officials did not think to save them. Their only concern was how to fulfill the delivery of grain. The degree to which people's communes lessened or worsened the famine is controversial. Each region dealt with the famine differently, and timelines of the famine are not uniform across China. One argument
21576-399: The illusion of superabundance made the adoption of the commune mess halls seem rational at the time. All these changes, of course, contributed to the rapid exhaustion of grain supplies. Iron and steel production was identified as a key requirement for economic advancement, and millions of peasants were ordered away from agricultural work to join the iron and steel production workforce. Much of
21762-470: The illusion of superabundance: First, it led to planners to shift lands from grain to economic crops, such as cotton, sugarcane, and beets, and divert huge numbers of agricultural laborers into industrial sectors, fueling state demand for procured grain from the countryside. Second, it prompted the Chinese leadership, especially Zhou Enlai , to speed up grain exports to secure more foreign currency to purchase capital goods needed for industrialization. Finally,
21948-568: The inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of protest and/or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful Montgomery bus boycott (1955–1956) in Alabama, sit-ins such as the influential Greensboro sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina, marches such as the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama, and other nonviolent activities. Noted legislative achievements during this phase of
22134-530: The inflexibility in the centrally planned food procurement system explains at least half of the famine mortality. Economic historians James Kung and Shuo Chen show that there was more over-procurement in places where politicians faced more competition. In addition, policies from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the central government, particularly the Three Red Banners and the Socialist Education Movement (SEM), proved to be ideologically detrimental to
22320-508: The informal phrase Poyekhali! ( Поехали! , 'Off we go!') later became a popular expression in the Eastern Bloc that was used to refer to the beginning of the Space Age . The five first-stage engines fired until the first separation event, when the four side-boosters fell away, leaving the core engine. The core stage then separated while the rocket was in a suborbital trajectory, and
22506-466: The introduction of the Renault 16 , many of this car's design principles live on in its modern counterparts: a large rear opening incorporating the rear window, foldable rear seats to extend boot space. The Mini , released in 1959, had first popularised the front wheel drive two-box configuration, but technically was not a hatchback as it had a fold-down bootlid. Japanese cars also began to gain acceptance in
22692-552: The iron produced by the peasant population ended up being too weak to be used commercially. Economists Xin Meng, Nancy Qian and Pierre Yared showed that, much as Nobel laureate Amartya Sen had earlier claimed, aggregate production was sufficient for avoiding famine and that the famine was caused by over-procurement and poor distribution within the country. They show that unlike most other famines, there were surprisingly more deaths in places that produced more food per capita, explaining that
22878-415: The jet into a "super-critical flight regime and to its stalling in complex meteorological conditions". Alexei Leonov, who was also a member of a state commission established to investigate Gagarin's death, was conducting parachute training sessions that day and heard "two loud booms in the distance". He believes that a Sukhoi Su-15 was flying below its minimum altitude and, "without realizing it because of
23064-416: The key factors in the famine, or at least worsened nature-induced disasters. In particular, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen puts this famine in a global context, arguing that lack of democracy is the major culprit: "Indeed, no substantial famine has ever occurred in a democratic country—no matter how poor." He adds that it is "hard to imagine that anything like this could have happened in a country that goes to
23250-420: The launch of Luna 3 on 6 October 1959, his recommendation to the Soviet space programme was endorsed and forward by Lieutenant Colonel Babushkin. By this point, he had accumulated 265 hours of flight time. Gagarin was promoted to the rank of senior lieutenant on 6 November 1959, three weeks after he was interviewed by a medical commission for qualification to the space programme. Gagarin's selection for
23436-419: The levels of the early 1960s. Large riots broke out in many cities like Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, New Jersey , Oakland, California and Washington, D.C. By the end of the decade, politicians like George Wallace and Richard Nixon campaigned on restoring law and order to a nation troubled with the new unrest. The Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union dominated
23622-574: The limited space in the Vostok capsule , should weigh less than 72 kg (159 lb) and be no taller than 1.70 metres (5 ft 7 in); Gagarin was 1.57 metres (5 ft 2 in) tall. From a pool of 154 qualified pilots short-listed by their Air Force units, the military physicians chose 29 cosmonaut candidates, of whom 20 were approved by the Credential Committee of the Soviet government . The first twelve, including Gagarin, were approved on 7 March 1960 and eight more were added in
23808-450: The local population. By creating an environment in which the Great Leap Forward did not become fully implemented, the Jiangxi government "did their best to minimize damage". From these findings, scholars Manning and Wemheuer concluded that much of the severity of the famine was due to provincial leaders and their responsibility for their regions. In 1958, there was a notable regional flood of
23994-541: The massive Soviet-created famine in Ukraine (the Holodomor ), doctors were prohibited from listing "starvation" as a cause of death on death certificates. This kind of deception was far from uncommon; a famous propaganda picture from the famine shows Chinese children from Shandong province ostensibly standing atop a field of wheat, so densely grown that it could apparently support their weight. In reality, they were standing on
24180-460: The middle of a social revolution, led the world in LGBT rights in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Inspired by the civil-rights movement and the women's movement, early gay-rights pioneers had begun, by the 1960s, to build a movement. These groups were rather conservative in their practices, emphasizing that gay men and women are no different from those who are straight and deserve full equality. This philosophy would be dominant again after AIDS, but by
24366-531: The movement of resistance to conscription ("the Draft") for the war. The antiwar movement was initially based on the older 1950s Peace movement , heavily influenced by the American Communist Party , but by the mid-1960s it outgrew this and became a broad-based mass movement centered in universities and churches: one kind of protest was called a " sit-in ". Other terms heard in the United States included "
24552-639: The next day and was posted to the Luostari Air Base , close to the Norwegian border in Murmansk Oblast , for a two-year assignment with the Northern Fleet . He was assigned to the 769th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 122nd Fighter Aviation Division flying Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15bis aircraft. By October 1959, he had flown a total of 265 hours. On 7 July 1959, he was rated Military Pilot 3rd Class. After expressing interest in space exploration following
24738-490: The next two highest-ranked cosmonauts, Titov and Nelyubov, were sent to Tyuratam for final preparations. Gagarin and Titov were selected to train in the flight-ready spacecraft on 7 April. Historian Asif Azam Siddiqi writes of the final selection: In the end, at the State Commission meeting on April 8, Kamanin stood up and formally nominated Gagarin as the primary pilot and Titov as his backup. Without much discussion,
24924-438: The opposition to the War in Vietnam. The 1960s left also consisted of ephemeral campus-based Trotskyist , Maoist and anarchist groups, some of which by the end of the 1960s had turned to militancy . The 1960s was also associated with a large increase in crime and urban unrest of all types. Between 1960 and 1969 reported incidence of violent crime per 100,000 people in the United States nearly doubled and have yet to return to
25110-720: The phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South. The emergence of the Black Power movement , which lasted roughly from 1966 to 1975, enlarged the aims of the civil rights movement to include racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency , and anti-imperialism . The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance . Between 1955 and 1968, acts of civil disobedience and nonviolent protest produced crisis situations between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations that highlighted
25296-497: The public security bureau began hunting down the writer. One of the post office's counter staff recalled that a pockmarked woman had mailed the letter. The local public security bureau rounded up and interrogated every pockmarked woman without identifying the culprit. It was subsequently determined that the writer worked in Zhengzhou and had written the letter upon returning to her home village and seeing people starving to death. Like in
25482-467: The rocket before launch and relayed instructions to Komarov from ground control following multiple system failures aboard the spacecraft. Despite their best efforts, Soyuz 1 crash landed after its parachutes failed to open, killing Komarov instantly. After the Soyuz 1 crash, Gagarin was permanently banned from training for and participating in further spaceflights. He was also grounded from flying aircraft solo,
25668-444: The roof of the convertible car he was riding in remain open, and stood so the cheering crowds could see him. Gagarin toured widely abroad, accepting the invitation of about 30 countries in the years following his flight. In just the first four months, he also went to Brazil, Bulgaria , Canada, Cuba, Czechoslovakia , Finland, Hungary , and Iceland. Because of his popularity, US president John F. Kennedy barred Gagarin from visiting
25854-530: The same year that he sang the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows" ( "Родина слышит, Родина знает" ) during re-entry. Gagarin was recognised as a qualified Military Pilot 1st Class and promoted to the rank of major in a special order given during his flight. At about 7,000 metres (23,000 ft), Gagarin ejected from the descending capsule as planned and landed using a parachute. There were concerns Gagarin's orbital spaceflight records for duration, altitude and lifted mass would not be recognized by
26040-445: The scale of the famine, some have speculated that the resulting cannibalism could be described as "on a scale unprecedented in the history of the 20th century". The Great Chinese Famine was caused by a combination of radical agricultural policies, social pressure, economic mismanagement, and natural disasters such as droughts and floods in farming regions. The Chinese Communist Party introduced drastic changes in farming policy during
26226-402: The second half of 1959, I took a long-distance bus from Xinyang to Luoshan and Gushi . Out of the window, I saw one corpse after another in the ditches. On the bus, no one dared to mention the dead. In one county, Guangshan , one-third of the people had died. Although there were dead people everywhere, the local leaders enjoyed good meals and fine liquor. ... I had seen people who had told
26412-654: The second half of the 1960s, its most famous moments being the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967, and the Woodstock Festival in upstate New York in 1969. Psychedelic drugs , especially LSD , were widely used medicinally, spiritually and recreationally throughout the late 1960s, and were popularized by Timothy Leary with his slogan " Turn on, tune in, drop out ". Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters also played
26598-399: The second half of the decade, young people began to revolt against the conservative norms of the old time, as well as remove themselves from mainstream liberalism, in particular the high level of materialism which was so common during the era. This created a "counterculture" that sparked a social revolution throughout much of the Western world. It began in the United States as a reaction against
26784-577: The seventh grade and the vocational school with honours in mouldmaking and foundry work, he was selected for further training at the Industrial Technical School in Saratov , where he studied tractors. While in Saratov, Gagarin volunteered at a local flying club for weekend training as a Soviet air cadet, where he trained to fly a biplane , and later a Yakovlev Yak-18 . He earned extra money as
26970-523: The severity of the famine in various ways, including causing the "illusion of superabundance" (浮夸风). Once the exaggerations of crop yields from the Mass Line were reported, "no one dared to 'dash cold water ' " on further reports. The SEM also led to the establishment of conspiracy theories in which the peasants were believed to be pretending to be hungry in order to sabotage the state grain purchase. Local governments had just as much, if not more, influence on
27156-605: The small Fallen Astronaut sculpture at their landing site as a memorial to the American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts who died in the Space Race ; the names on its plaque included Yuri Gagarin and 14 others. In 1970, a 262 km (163-mile) wide crater on the far side was named after him. Gagarin was inducted as a member of the 1976 inaugural class of the International Space Hall of Fame in New Mexico . Gagarin
27342-510: The soil (1 to 2 Chinese feet or 33 to 66 cm). The deep plowing theory stated that the most fertile soil was deep in the earth, and plowing unusually deeply would allow extra-strong root growth. While deep plowing can increase yields in some contexts, the policy is generally considered to have hindered yields in China. In the Four Pests campaign, citizens were called upon to destroy mosquitoes, rats, flies, and sparrows. The mass eradication of
27528-437: The sparrows resulted in an increase of the population of crop-eating insects, which had no predators without the sparrows. Beginning in 1957, the Chinese Communist Party began to report excessive production of grain because of pressure from superiors. However, the actual production of grain throughout China was decreasing from 1957 to 1961. For example: This series of events resulted in an "illusion of superabundance" (浮夸风), and
27714-516: The statue was moved to a permanent location outside the Royal Observatory, Greenwich . Great Chinese Famine The Great Chinese Famine ( Chinese : 三年大饥荒 ; lit. 'three years of great famine') was a famine that occurred between 1959 and 1961 in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Some scholars have also included the years 1958 or 1962. It is widely regarded as
27900-419: The streets, marching and protesting, authoring books and debating to change social and political views that limited women. In 1963, with Betty Friedan 's book, The Feminine Mystique , the role of women in society, and in public and private life was questioned. By 1966, the movement was beginning to grow in size and power as women's group spread across the country and Friedan, along with other feminists, founded
28086-516: The tank batteries gathered to be recharged and randomly mixed the different chemical supplies intended for the task. In early 1943, his two older siblings were deported by the Germans to Poland for slave labour . They escaped and were found by Soviet soldiers who conscripted them into helping with the war effort. They did not return home until after the war, in 1945. The rest of the Gagarin family believed
28272-456: The terrible weather conditions, he passed within 10 or 20 meters (33 or 66 ft) of Yuri and Seregin's plane while breaking the sound barrier". The resulting turbulence would have sent the MiG-15UTI into an uncontrolled spin. Leonov said the first boom he heard was that of the jet breaking the sound barrier and the second was Gagarin's plane crashing. On 14 April 1961, Gagarin was honoured with
28458-472: The three million Puerto Ricans residing in the 50 states. The main concentration of the population was in New York City. In the 1960s and the following 1970s, Hispanic-American culture was on the rebound like ethnic music, foods, culture and identity both became popular and assimilated into the American mainstream. Spanish-language television networks, radio stations and newspapers increased in presence across
28644-522: The time Yuri was born he was already helping with the cattle on the farm. His sister Zoya, born in 1927, helped take care of "Yura" and their youngest brother Boris, born in 1936. Like millions of Soviet citizens, his family suffered during the German occupation during World War II . During the German advance on Moscow , retreating Red Army soldiers seized the collective farm's livestock. The Nazis captured Klushino on 18 October 1941. On their first day in
28830-485: The title of pilot-cosmonaut in January 1961 and underwent a two-day examination conducted by a special interdepartmental commission led by Lieutenant-General Nikolai Kamanin , the overseer of the Vostok programme. The commission was tasked with ranking the candidates based on their mission readiness for the first human Vostok mission. On 17 January, they were tested in a simulator at the M. M. Gromov Flight-Research Institute on
29016-609: The training centre, Colonel Vladimir Ivanovich Yazdovskiy, the head physician for Gagarin's flight, and Major-General Aleksandr Nikolayevich Babiychuk, a physician flag officer on the Soviet Air Force General Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Air Force . The commission limited their selection to pilots between 25 and 30 years old. The chief engineer of the programme Sergei Korolev also specified that candidates, to fit in
29202-502: The truth being destroyed. Did I dare to write it? Yu Dehong, the secretary of a party official in Xinyang in 1959 and 1960, stated: I went to one village and saw 100 corpses, then another village and another 100 corpses. No one paid attention to them. People said that dogs were eating the bodies. Not true, I said. The dogs had long ago been eaten by the people. There are widespread oral reports, though little official documentation, of human cannibalism being practiced in various forms as
29388-529: The twentieth century, Mexican Americans formed organizations to protect themselves from discrimination. One of those organizations, the League of United Latin American Citizens , was formed in 1929 and remains active today. The movement gained momentum after World War II when groups such as the American G.I. Forum , which was formed by returning Mexican American veterans, joined in the efforts by other civil rights organizations. Mexican-American civil-rights activists achieved several major legal victories including
29574-407: The two older children were dead, and Yuri became ill with "grief and hunger"; he was also beaten for refusing to work for the German forces and spent the remainder of the war at a hospital as a patient and later as an orderly. His mother was hospitalized during the same period, after a German soldier gashed her leg with a scythe. When the Germans were routed out of Klushino on 9 March 1944, Yuri helped
29760-549: The upcoming flight by experiencing g-forces in a centrifuge. Psychological tests included placing the candidates in an anechoic chamber in complete isolation; Gagarin was in the chamber from 26 July to 5 August. In August 1960, a Soviet Air Force doctor evaluated his personality as follows: Modest; embarrasses when his humour gets a little too racy; high degree of intellectual development evident in Yuriy; fantastic memory; distinguishes himself from his colleagues by his sharp and far-ranging sense of attention to his surroundings;
29946-516: The upper stage carried it to orbit. Once the upper stage finished firing, it separated from the spacecraft, which orbited for 108 minutes before returning to Earth in Kazakhstan. Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth. "The feeling of weightlessness was somewhat unfamiliar compared with Earth conditions. Here, you feel as if you were hanging in a horizontal position in straps. You feel as if you are suspended", Gagarin wrote in his post-flight report. He also wrote in his autobiography released
30132-455: The verbatim record of his conversations with Earth stations during the spaceflight. In a 2006 interview, Gagarin's friend Colonel Valentin Petrov stated that Gagarin never said these words and that the quote originated from Khrushchev's speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU about the state's anti-religion campaign , saying "Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any god there". Petrov also said Gagarin had been baptised into
30318-428: The very end of the 1960s, the movement's goals would change and become more radical, demanding a right to be different, and encouraging gay pride . The symbolic birth of the gay rights movement would not come until the decade had almost come to a close. Gays were not allowed by law to congregate. Gay establishments such as the Stonewall Inn in New York City were routinely raided by the police to arrest gay people. On
30504-399: The village, they burned down the school, ending Yuri's first year of education. The Germans also burned down 27 houses in the village and forced the residents including the Gagarins to work the farms to feed the occupying soldiers. Those who refused were beaten or sent to the concentration camp set up at Gzhatsk. A Nazi officer took over the Gagarin residence. On the land behind their house,
30690-402: The weather contributed to the appalling drop in output, but it is impossible to assess to what extent. Despite these claims, other scholars have provided provincial-level demographic panel data which quantitatively proved that weather was also an important factor, particularly in those provinces which experienced excessively wet conditions. According to economist Daniel Houser and others, 69% of
30876-431: The world's geopolitics during the decade. Construction of the Berlin Wall by East Germany began in 1961. Africa was in a period of radical political change as 32 countries gained independence from their European colonial rulers . The heavy-handed American role in the Vietnam War lead to an anti-Vietnam War movement with outraged student protestors around the globe culminating in the protests of 1968 . China saw
31062-403: The worsening famine. The Three Red Banners of the CCP "sparked the fanaticism of 1958". The implementation of the Mass line , one of the three banners which told people to "go all out, aim high, and build socialism with greater, better, and more economical results", is cited in connection to the pressures officials felt to report a superabundance of grain. The SEM, established in 1957, also led to
31248-474: Was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful crewed spaceflight , became the first human to journey into outer space . Travelling on Vostok 1 , Gagarin completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961, with his flight taking 108 minutes. By achieving this major milestone for the Soviet Union amidst the Space Race , he became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including his nation's highest distinction: Hero of
31434-413: Was a candidate favoured by his peers; when they were asked to vote anonymously for a candidate besides themselves they would like to be the first to fly, all but three chose Gagarin. One of these candidates, Yevgeny Khrunov , believed that Gagarin was very focused and was demanding of himself and others when necessary. On 30 May 1960, Gagarin was further selected for an accelerated training group, known as
31620-401: Was a revolution in social norms, including clothing, music, drugs, dress, sexuality , formalities, civil rights , precepts of military duty, and schooling. Some people denounce the decade as one of irresponsible excess, flamboyance, the decay of social order, and the fall or relaxation of social taboos. A wide range of music emerged; from popular music inspired by and including the Beatles (in
31806-401: Was accused of being a " capitalist roader " during the Cultural Revolution and was purged twice. In December 1978, Deng Xiaoping became the new Paramount Leader of China and launched the historic Reforms and Opening Up program which fundamentally changed the agricultural and industrial system in China. Until the early 1980s, the Chinese government's stance was that the famine was largely
31992-415: Was also awarded the 1960 Gold Air Medal and the 1961 De la Vaulx Medal from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in Switzerland. He received numerous awards from other nations that year, including the Star of the Republic of Indonesia (2nd Class), the Order of the Cross of Grunwald (1st Degree) in Poland , the Order of the Flag of the People's Republic of Hungary (1st Class with diamonds),
32178-467: Was also part of a group of children that built model aeroplanes. He was fascinated with aircraft from a young age and his interest in aeroplanes was energized after a Yakovlev fighter plane crash landed in Klushino during the war. In 1950, aged 16, Gagarin began an apprenticeship as a foundryman at a steel plant in Lyubertsy , near Moscow, and enrolled at a local "young workers" school for seventh-grade evening classes. After graduating in 1951 from both
32364-420: Was an astonishing loss of food availability associated with Maoist state appropriation". Along with collectivization , the central government decreed several changes in agricultural techniques that would be based on the ideas of later-discredited Soviet agronomist Trofim Lysenko . One of these ideas was close planting, whereby the density of seedlings was at first tripled and then doubled again. The theory
32550-410: Was an emerging idealism of the 1960s. A second wave of feminism in the United States and around the world gained momentum in the early 1960s. While the first wave of the early 20th century was centered on gaining suffrage and overturning de jure inequalities, the second wave was focused on changing cultural and social norms and de facto inequalities associated with women. At the time, a woman's place
32736-409: Was born 9 March 1934 in the village of Klushino , in the Smolensk Oblast of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , near Gzhatsk (renamed Gagarin in 1968 after his death). His parents worked on a sovkhoz —Aleksey Ivanovich Gagarin as a carpenter and Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina as a dairy farmer . Yuri was the third of four children. His older brother Valentin was born in 1924, and by
32922-428: Was built in 1971 and the Armenian airline Armavia named their first Sukhoi Superjet 100 in his honour in 2011. Two commemorative coins were issued in the Soviet Union to honour the 20th and 30th anniversaries of his flight: a one-rouble coin in copper-nickel (1981) and a three-rouble coin in silver (1991). In 2001, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gagarin's flight, a series of four coins bearing his likeness
33108-418: Was described as a "blatant political radical who almost single-handedly damaged Anhui". Jiangxi encountered a situation almost opposite to that of Anhui. The leaders of Jiangxi publicly opposed some of the Great Leap programs, quietly made themselves unavailable, and even appeared to take a passive attitude towards the Maoist economy. As the leaders worked collaboratively among themselves, they also worked with
33294-504: Was generally seen as being in the home, and they were excluded from many jobs and professions. In the U.S., a Presidential Commission on the Status of Women found discrimination against women in the workplace and every other aspect of life, a revelation which launched two decades of prominent women-centered legal reforms (i.e., the Equal Pay Act of 1963 , Title IX , etc.) which broke down the last remaining legal barriers to women's personal freedom and professional success. Feminists took to
33480-417: Was increases in crop yield of one thousand to three thousand percent achieved, supposedly, in massive 24-hour pushes organized by the officials which they called "sputnik launches". But the numbers were faked, and so were the fields that Mao observed, which had been carefully prepared in advance of Mao's visit by local officials, who removed shoots of grain from various fields and carefully transplanted them into
33666-402: Was issued in Russia; it consisted of a two-rouble coin in copper-nickel, a three-rouble coin in silver, a ten-rouble coin in brass-copper and nickel, and a 100-rouble coin in silver. In 2011, Russia issued a 1,000-rouble coin in gold and a three-rouble coin in silver to mark the 50th anniversary of his flight. In 2008, the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League named their championship trophy
33852-451: Was near the end of his term and left office in January 1961, and Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Kennedy had wanted Keynesian and staunch anti-communist social reforms. These were passed under Johnson including civil rights for African Americans and health care for the elderly and the poor . Despite his large-scale Great Society programs, Johnson was increasingly disliked by the New Left at home and abroad. For some, May 1968 meant
34038-418: Was opened. The monument is mounted to a 38 m (125 ft) tall pedestal and is constructed of titanium. Beside the column is a replica of the descent module used during his spaceflight. In 2011, a statue of Gagarin was unveiled at Admiralty Arch in The Mall in London, opposite the permanent sculpture of James Cook . It is a copy of the statue outside Gagarin's former school in Lyubertsy. In 2013,
34224-400: Was that plants of the same species would not compete with each other. In natural cycles they did fully compete, which actually stunted growth and resulted in lower yields. Another policy known as " deep plowing " was based on the ideas of Lysenko's colleague Terentiy Maltsev, who encouraged peasants across China to eschew normal plowing depths of 15–20 centimeters and instead plow deeply into
34410-434: Was then appropriated by the state and distributed at its discretion. In 2008, former deputy editor of Yanhuang Chunqiu and author Yang Jisheng would summarize his perspective of the effect of the production targets as an inability for supply to be redirected to where it was most demanded: In Xinyang , people starved at the doors of the grain warehouses. As they died, they shouted, "Communist Party, Chairman Mao, save us". If
34596-506: Was viewed as traditional and inconsequential was now becoming the significance in the turning point of a culture. A document known as the Port Huron Statement exemplifies these two conditions perfectly in its first hand depiction, "while these and other problems either directly oppressed us or rankled our consciences and became our own subjective concerns, we began to see complicated and disturbing paradoxes in our surrounding America. The declaration "all men are created equal..." rang hollow before
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