Yuri Gagarin - in pictures

Yuri Gagarin as a schoolboy in Gzhatsk, Russia circa 1945 Photograph: Rex Features

Gagarin during piloting practice at Orenburg Military Pilot's School Photograph: The Museum Of Yuri Gagarin/EPA

Gagarin as a student at the first Chikalov military aircraft training establishment, pictured with his wife Valentina in 1957 Photograph: Rex Features

The original 1960 group of cosmonauts is shown in a photo from May 1961 at the seaside port of Sochi. The names of many of these men were considered state secrets for more than twenty-five years. Sitting in front from left to right: Pavel Popovich, Viktor Gorbatko, Yevgeniy Khrunov, Yuri Gagarin, Chief Designer Sergey Korolev, his wife Nina Koroleva with Popovich's daughter Natasha, Cosmonaut Training Center Director Yevgeniy Karpov, parachute trainer Nikolay Nikitin, and physician Yevgeniy Fedorov. Standing the second row from left to right: Aleksey Leonov, Andrian Nikolayev, Mars Rafikov, Dmitriy Zaykin, Boris Volynov, German Titov, Grigoriy Nelyubov, Valeriy Bykovskiy, and Georgiy Shonin. In the back from left to right: Valentin Filatyev, Ivan Anikeyev, and Pavel Belyayeu Photograph: Rex Features

Gagarin in the command capsule of Vostok 1, 12 April 1961 Photograph: AFP`/Getty Images

Vostok 1 launches for the maiden manned space flight in 1961 Photograph: Rex Features

A 1960s Soviet postcard commemorating the Vostok Project Photograph: Rykoff Collection/Corbis

Meeting British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan Photograph: Harry Myers/Rex Features

A girl presents Gagarin with flowers during his visit to London in July 1961 Photograph: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis

Cuban Premier Fidel Castro and Gagarin wave to cheering Cubans during celebrations on the eighth anniversary of Castro's revolutionary movement. Gagarin, addressing the crowd through an interpreter, said that "someday a Cuban will fly through space" Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

A Soviet sculptor carving a head of Gagarin in 1962 Photograph: Yevgeny Khaldei/Corbis

Gagarin exchanges smiles with onlooking Parisians as he arrives in Paris on 27 September 1963. Gagarin attended the International Astronautical Congress at UNESCO Headquarters, and predicted that Russia would land a man on the moon before the United States Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

With his family at Zviozdny Gorodok (Startown), 1966 Photograph: Rex Features

Surrounded by autograph hunters in 1968 Photograph: DALMAS/Rex Features

Gagarin's funeral in Moscow, March 1968. His ashes were buried in the walls of the Kremlin Photograph: Yevgeny Khaldei/Corbis