Photo of Yuri Gagarin laying a wreath at Manchester Cenotaph, St. Peter’s Square (Credit: RIA NOVOSTI / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY)
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s inaugural space flight on 12 April 1961, instead of using one of my own photos in this Mancunian Wave blog I'm borrowing one from Gagarin’s visit to Manchester in July 1961.
It was only the second country he had visited outside the Soviet Bloc, going to Helsinki in Finland, then Manchester and London on the UK leg of this tour.
It was only the second country he had visited outside the Soviet Bloc, going to Helsinki in Finland, then Manchester and London on the UK leg of this tour.
He was driven in an open top car through the streets from Manchester Ringway Airport and visited the Foundry Workers Union (Yuri was once a foundry worker himself) in Moss Side, the AEI works at Trafford Park, before going onto Manchester Town Hall. He also met Bernard Lovell from the Jodrell Bank Space telescope in Cheshire and thanked him for the assistance Jodrell Bank had given the Soviet space programme in tracking their early launches.
A friend of mine born in London in 1963 was given the first name of Gagarin in his honour, although everyone knows him as Yuri!
More on the Manchester visit of Yuri Gagarin at: http://www.wcml.org.uk/contents/international/cold-war/yuri-gagarin-in-manchester/
Thanks for posting it! Being from Russia and having lived in Manc for 3 years I didn't know this.
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