April 12: International Day of Human Space Flight

April 12, which has been designated by the UN as a day to celebrate the dawn of the space age, coincides this year with the Artemis II mission, the first crewed mission to the Moon in 50 years. To mark this day, we are retrieving from our archives a photograph of the first man to travel into space during his visit to Athens.

Yuri Gagarin at the Acropolis

We are at the Propylaea, on 13 February 1962. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, as part of a world tour, visits Athens 10 months after his space mission aboard Vostok 1, on 12 April 1961. The first human in space had expressed the wish to visit the foremost monument of Greek civilization. Despite strict police restrictions, crowds cheer him on. In his hand he holds an olive branch, the symbol of peace, which someone offered him on the sacred rock of the Acropolis. He shows particular interest in the marbles stolen by Elgin and remarks that he had seen them during his visit to the British Museum. He stops at the spot where Manolis Glezos took down the Nazi flag and asks for more information about the hero of the National Resistance, who at that moment is in prison. Photojournalists and cameramen follow him everywhere. Tourists and Greeks ask for autographs and to be photographed with him. Gagarin’s presence at the Acropolis symbolically connects Greece’s glorious past with the great achievements of the modern era, making this visit feel like a unique moment in history.

The significance of the space age: we are all connected

The benefits resulting from the Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to conquer space are also recognized by the United Nations, which, in the preamble to its resolution commemorating April 12, affirms the significant contribution of space science and technology to achieving sustainable development goals, enhancing the well-being of peoples, and their peaceful coexistence. Yuri Gagarin expressed the same idea in different words: “As I circled around the Earth in my spacecraft, I saw for the first time how beautiful our planet is. Humanity, let us preserve and increase this beauty, and not destroy it!”

Photograph:

Yuri Gagarin visits the Acropolis of Athens, 13 February 1962. (Photo: Floros Brothers — Nikolaos Leon. Floros)