Hero Of The Soviet Union.

108 Minutes after launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome and having ejected from the Vostok One re-entry capsule, Cosmonaut Major Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin lands twenty-six kilometers south-west of the town of Engels, on the outskirts of the village of Smelkovka in the Saratov region of Russia.

His arrival was witnessed the local forest warden's wife, to whom he greeted:

"I am a friend, comrade, a friend!"

"Can it be that you have come from outer space?" she asked, nervously.

"As a matter of fact, I have!" he replied.

Today marks the Fiftieth Anniversary of Gagarin's historic flight, after which he became a Hero of The Soviet Union - and to the world.