Some took him for Neil Armstrong, others simply could not identify the astronaut. “Some Russian guy,” suggested one of the respondents.
On the eve of the 55th anniversary of the first manned space flight, Russia Today conducted a survey in the United States, Great Britain and Holland to find out what Westerners know about this event.
In all three countries, passers-by were asked two questions: "Do you know what happened on April 12, 1961?" and "Who was the first person to fly into space?" In addition, the respondents were shown a photograph of Yuri Gagarin, asking who was captured on it.
In none of the three countries, respondents were able to say what kind of event occurred on April 12, 1961.
People interviewed by correspondents on the streets of Washington could not recognize Gagarin from his photograph. When asked about the first man in space, some called astronaut Neil Armstrong, who first set foot on the moon, and John Glenn, the first American astronaut to fly into space.
Only two of the respondents surveyed in the American capital of respondents confidently stated that the first person in space was Yuri Gagarin, and one of the respondents was a tourist from Great Britain.
However, in the British capital, the majority of respondents also did not recognize Gagarin from the photograph, and one of the respondents even mistook him for Neil Armstrong. One of the respondents recalled that the first person in space was “someone from Russia,” but could not give his name. “Some Russian guy,” he suggested.
Only one of the residents of Amsterdam interviewed by RT correspondents recognized Gagarin from a photograph, the rest were at a loss. Most of the respondents also mentioned the name of Neil Armstrong, and one of the passers-by suggested that the Dutchman was the first in space, although he could not say his name.
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On April 12, 1961, the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made the first flight into space in the history of mankind. His flight on the Vostok-1 spacecraft, which made a revolution in near-earth orbit, lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes. He landed near the city of Engels in the Saratov region.
The achievement of Soviet cosmonautics excited the whole world, making Gagarin a world-famous celebrity. A month after the flight, he went on his first foreign trip with the so-called Peace Mission. In total, the cosmonaut visited about 30 countries.