On April 12, 1961, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, became the first human being to travel into outer space. Aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1, Gagarin orbited the Earth once before safely returning to the planet.

Here were some of the newspaper reactions in Amerika:

New York Times

Hunstville Times

Christian Science Monitor

Evening Gazette

Milwaukee Journal

Daily Worker

New York Post

Denver Post

New York World-Telegram

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The Editors are the staffers of Columbia Journalism Review. Tags: cosmonaut, first man in space, Soviet Union, Yuri Gagarin