By a Staff Reporter: April 12 is a very important day in the history of space exploration. Today marks the first time that Soviet astronaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin has gone into space. He was the first man to travel in space. On April 12, 1961, Soviet astronaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin boarded the spacecraft Vostok 1. As a result, today is a very important day in space research.