Major Yuri Gagarin
31 January: A Chimp called Ham returns safely after space flight of 5,000 mph at a height of 155 miles above the Earth.
12 April Soviets win space race
Yuri Gagarin is the first man in space. He orbits the Earth for 108 minutes travelling at more than 17,000 mph before landing at an undisclosed location.
5 May: Shepard becomes first US astronaut
25 May: President John F Kennedy pledges to put a man on the Moon by 1970
In a speech to Congress and broadcasted on TV and radio around the US, he asks for an extra $1,700m (£600m) to fund it.
1962:
20 February: US spaceman orbits Earth
26 April: Britain launches Ariel I satellite
26 April: First US rocket lands on Moon but fails to send back pictures due to a technical fault
14 December: 'Music of spheres' hails Venus fly-by as first radio contact plays strange chord-like sounds
1963:
16 June: Soviets launch first woman into space
1965:
18 March: Alexei Leonov performs first space walk
24 March: Millions watch space probe crash into Moon
29 March: Gemini V returns to Earth
1966:
3 February: Soviets make the first controlled landing of a probe on the Moon
2 June: First US space probe lands on Moon
Just over half an hour later, it begins transmitting a series of astonishing photographs of the Moon's surface.
1967:
27 June: Three astronauts die in Apollo 1 tragedy
Fire caused by an electrical spark sweeps through an Apollo spacecraft during rehearsals at Cape Kennedy killing the crew within seconds.
24 April: Russian cosmonaut dies in space crash
5 May: First all-British satellite 'Ariel 3' launched
18 October: Soviets glimpse beneath clouds of Venus
19 October: US probe Mariner 5 flies past hot and windy Venus
1968:
24 December: First astronauts orbit the Moon in Apollo 8
1969:
22 May: Apollo 10 gets bird's eye view of Moon
16 July: Apollo 11 takes off for the Moon
21 July: American Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission
19 November: Second Apollo mission lands on Moon
Next: The 1970s
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