5718–5721 AM · 1958 CE — 1961 CE · world history
Sputnik and Gagarin's Flight
Humanity reaches space: first a satellite, four years later a man.
On 4 October 1957 the Soviet Union puts a metal sphere into orbit whose beeping is picked up by radio amateurs worldwide. America takes it as a defeat and creates NASA. On 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin circles the Earth once in 108 minutes and returns alive, the first person to see the planet from outside.