Happy Yuri's Night 2008

Tonight is Yuri's Night, the 47th anniversary of the first manned spaceflight. On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin rode the Vostok 1 rocket into history, and in recent years Yuri's Day and Yuri's Night has become an international holiday, much like St. Patrick's Day. You can learn more at this web site: Yuri's Night. I have a bottle of some fine sangria wine that I intend to sample, and raise a toast for the occasion.

And another famous cosmonaut, or cosmopooch, is in the news today:

AP - MOSCOW - Russian officials unveiled a monument to Laika, a dog whose flight to space more than 50 years ago paved the way for human space missions. The small monument is near a military research facility in Moscow that prepared Laika's flight to space on Nov. 3, 1957. It features a dog standing on top of a rocket.

I wish everyone a happy and safe Yuri's Night.

VIKTOR KUPRIN


Technorati tags: Yuri Gagarin, Yuri's Night, USSR, space, cosmonaut, Laika, Vostok