Here is the headline, appropriately enough, from the Huntsville (Alabama) Times:

50 years ago today Cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first human being to ascend into Outer Space. His mission, Vostok 1, made one orbit of the Earth, the flight lasting 1 hour, 48 minutes.
The following words are attributed to Col. Gagarin upon landing:

“When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, don’t be afraid, I am a Soviet like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!”

This little fact that Col. Gagarin parachuted from the spacecraft prior to its touchdown wasn’t known at the time, being that this is the Soviet Union we’re talking about here. In any case, the Soviets did it first, and the real race was on….a race which the Soviets LOST eight years later.
Huge celebrations took place all over Russia in commemoration of this flight…while in the USA, NASA announced the final homes for the soon-to-be-retired space shuttle fleet. And the Russians are still keeping the International Space Station going with more-or-less regular Soyuz flights.
What does that say about America’s yearning for exploration? Very, very sad if you ask me.