Once upon a time, man dreamed of a day that he would blast off into space and see the Earth from the stars’ point of view. That day came on April 12, 1961 when 27-year-old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin made one complete orbit around the Earth. This trip around the globe in the spacecraft Vostok 1 lasted 1 hour and 48 minutes and cemented Yuri into the history books.

On Cosmonautics Day and the corresponding holiday Yuri’s Night (also April 12), ceremonies starts in the city of Korolyov, near a statue of the Yuri statue. A parade then marches (under police escort) to Red Square for a visit to Yuri’s grave in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, and continues to Cosmonauts Alley, a pedestrian-only avenue in Moscow where several busts are placed on the left-hand side in honor of the people crucial to the successes of the Soviet space program. Finally, the festivities are concluded with a visit to the Novodevichy Cemetery, the most famous cemetery in the city and the final resting place for many of the nation’s leaders and scientists.