This is an international outreach event where your local Astronomy club should be set out with telescopes to look at the moon and Jupiter. Hunt them down and take a look if the weather is cooperating.
Today is also the anniversary of the beginning of the Space Shuttle Flights
Gagarin got to space but not to orbit, though. First human to orbit was John Glenn, in February 1962. edit : Correction! Gagarin DID orbit the Earth, one time. Maybe not technically "in orbit" but close enough for me. Glenn is the first American to orbit the Earth (three times).
I remember being angry when I learned the truth about the Russian space program. We didn't learn squat about Gagarin in school, we were taught that the hero John Glenn was the first man in space (I believe they briefly mentioned Sputnik, but quickly moved on). This was the 1970's.
I grew up in SoCal. Russians and Soviet Nationals were BANNED from SoCal until the late 1980's. This is where I saw my first AN-124, and watching that thing take off from the smaller airport at Brown Field was incredible. We were told in school that the Russians used German War Criminals to kick start their space program, while conveniently forgetting that we did the same. The old joke of "our Germans beat their Germans" is not exactly that far off from the reality.
Yeah, between that and the lies we were taught about the Russian role in WW2 - it's almost like we were being fed propaganda! - but that couldn't be, that's something the Russians do, not us.
From this album (I've heard only a couple of songs from it but I like what I've heard) :