On this day, April 12, in 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. Karsh photographed Gagarin in 1963 on a trip to the USSR that would include photographing a variety of figures, including politicians Brezhnev and Khrushchev, and ballerinas such as Maya Plisetskaya. Karsh would go on to photograph several American astronauts in 1969 including the Apollo XI crew.