Fiftieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's visit

The 50th anniversary of the visit to Sri Lanka by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, was marked on December 7.

During his visit, he met Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and other leaders. People gave him a rousing welcome wherever he went on a motorcade. Gagarin became an international celebrity, and was awarded many medals and honours, including the Hero of the Soviet Union', the nation's highest honour.Vostok 1 marked his only spaceflight (April 12, 1961) , but he served as backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission which ended in a fatal crash. Gagarin later became deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow, which was later named after him. Gagarin died in 1968 when a MiG training jet he was piloting crashed.

Pix provided by Sanath Rohana Wickramasinghe