Call him Yuri Googarin. Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin has been rightly saluted with a Google doodle on the 50th anniversary of the day he became the first human in space. (Google founder Sergey Brin was born in Moscow, after all. Just like Laika!)
We did a friendly report on Yuri Gagarin in 2008, on the 40th anniversary of his death. The most delightful part is still him shouting “Poyekhali!” (“Off we go!”) as the engines fired for launch. He was a tough guy.
See our biography of Yuri Gagarin >>