In 1861, on April 12, in the United States, a civil war between the North and the South began with the bombardment by the southerners of the federally owned Fort Sumter at the entrance to the port of Charleston in South Carolina.

The reasons for the military conflict are simple: the industrialized North needed free skilled workers, while black slave labor flourished in the agrarian South. At the same time, many northerners were convinced of the inhumanity of slavery and sincerely desired the liberation of slaves. The situation escalated after the election of Abraham Lincoln, a supporter of the abolition of slavery, to the post of President of the United States. Seven southern states seceded from the union, formed the Confederacy, and formed a provisional government, electing Jefferson Davis as president. The Confederate Constitution upheld the legality of slavery. The civil war ended after 4 years with the victory of the northerners.

The history of those years haunted the modest housewife from Atlanta Margaret Mitchell, and in 1936 she wrote her only novel, Gone with the Wind, which glorified her and became a world bestseller.

In 1903, the city of Eastbourne opened the first urban omnibus line in England, operated by multi-seat mechanically traction carriages.

The word "omnibus" in Latin means "for all". For the first time, horse-drawn omnibuses appeared in Paris in 1662 at the suggestion of the great mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal "for persons who do not have the opportunity to use a carriage." However, after some time, the Parisian authorities banned "low-ranking people" - workers, soldiers, servants - from riding omnibuses. So the new mode of transport lost its main contingent and ceased to exist for a long time, reviving only in the first third of the 19th century.

In 1918, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the monuments of the republic was issued.

“In commemoration of the great upheaval that has transformed Russia,” it said, “the Council of People’s Commissars decides: monuments erected in honor of the tsars and their servants and not of interest either from a historical or artistic side, are subject to removal from squares and streets and part transfer to warehouses, partly for the use of a utilitarian nature.

Another paragraph of the decree prescribed: "to mobilize artistic forces and organize a wide competition to develop projects of monuments that should commemorate the great days of the Russian Socialist Revolution."

In 1919, the first communist subbotnik took place in Moscow.

On this day, which fell on a "day off", the workers of the Moscow-Sortirovochnaya depot repaired 3 steam locomotives free of charge. The initiative, which Vladimir Ilyich called great, at the request of the party was picked up by the whole country, and a new word "subbotnik" appeared in the dictionary - gratuitous work for the good of the country.

In 1961, a citizen of the USSR, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin, on the Vostok spacecraft, for the first time in the world, made an orbital flight around the Earth, opening the era of manned space flights.
The flight lasted 108 minutes. The ship landed southwest of the city of Engels on the field of the Leninsky Put collective farm. By order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR No. 77, for the successful fulfillment of a government assignment, the first cosmonaut of the Earth, Senior Lieutenant Gagarin, was awarded the extraordinary rank of Major. On April 14, Moscow solemnly welcomed the hero.

Ah, this day is the twelfth of April,
As he swept through people's hearts.
It seemed that the world involuntarily became kinder,
Shaken by his own victory,
- wrote Alexander Tvardovsky.

Before Gagarin, 5 test launches were made. They showed that space does not forgive the slightest inaccuracy: the first ship, having completed the program, did not obey the command to descend, went into orbit and subsequently ceased to exist. The second launch was successful. But at the end of 1960, at the third launch of the Vostok-type ship, failure was again: the device burned out on return.

Gagarin took risks, the price of which could be life.
By decision of the International Aviation Federation, April 12 is celebrated as the International Day of Aviation and Cosmonautics.

On April 12, 1961, at 09:07 Moscow time, the Vostok-1 spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on board. For the first time in history, a spacecraft with a man on board entered outer space, flying in the orbit of an artificial satellite of the Earth.

Everyone knows the famous Gagarin word "Let's go!", which he exclaimed during the start. And few people know the exclamation of Chief Designer Sergei Korolev. Seeing the launch vehicle going up, Korolev said: "If only he flew off and returned alive!" All participants in this feat made incredible efforts to ensure that this was so, but there was no absolute certainty in a successful outcome. Therefore, the incredible tension that reigned in the control center lasted all 108 minutes of this epoch-making flight.

The satellite ship from the Vostok series deserves special attention, on which Gagarin's first flight into space was made. The device itself is launched by a multi-stage launch vehicle, from which it must separate when it reaches the desired height. The ship consisted of two parts: a cockpit, in which life support systems and a control panel are located, and a second compartment with a brake engine and other devices.

In the cockpit there is a chair in which a catapult is built in, separating it from the ship. In addition, the chair is equipped with a supply of provisions and medicines, a walkie-talkie and even a rescue boat in case of an emergency landing on the water. As you know, the shell of a ship in dense layers of the atmosphere heats up to an incredible temperature, so a special system of thermal protection of the hull was provided, and the windows are made of heat-resistant glass. We can say that the means of delivering the first cosmonaut into orbit was absolutely technologically revolutionary for its time. And the question of his safe return was thought out to the smallest detail.

In total, there were exactly twenty candidates for the first flight into space - all military pilots who were selected according to specific characteristics. The Queen needed a man under the age of 30, weighing 72 kg and 170 cm tall, in good physical and mental health. The cabin of the Vostok-1 ship was designed in such a way that a person with certain physical characteristics could fit in it. Initially, six out of twenty candidates were selected, and the final decision was made almost at the last moment. It was decided to send Yuri Gagarin first on the flight, and German Titov was to become his understudy.

On April 12, 1961, at the beginning of ten o'clock in the morning, the command "Start!" was given, and for the first time a spacecraft with a man on board, propelled by a launch vehicle, went from the Baikonur cosmodrome into earth orbit. Gagarin did not have a special program; his task was to fly into orbit and return alive. And yet, during the flight, he experimented a bit: he tried to eat and drink, make notes with a pencil, being in a state of weightlessness. The flight of the ship lasted only 108 minutes, during which he managed to make one revolution around our planet.

During the landing, an emergency situation arose - due to malfunctions in the braking system, the ship deviated somewhat from the planned course. However, the cosmonaut coped with the situation - by controlling the parachute lines, he made a successful landing, avoiding falling into the Volga. At 10:55 a.m., the descent vehicle landed on soft arable land near the Volga coast near the village of Smelovka, Ternovsky district, Saratov region. The first manned space flight in history has ended successfully.

It is known from archival documents that Speech by Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin before the start into space "was recorded on tape in Moscow on April 3, 1961 (the same text was read in front of the microphone on that day by the "reserve" cosmonauts - German Titov and Grigory Nelyubov).

April 11, 1961. The day before...

On the eve of the launch - on April 11 at five o'clock in the morning the rocket was taken to the launch pad. During the day, all the tests of the carrier and the ship at the starting position were carried out according to the instructions. Almost every person responsible for the system, before signing the log for the operation, sentenced: "Pah, pah, pah, so as not to jinx it - there are no comments!"

Academician Boris Raushenbakh, one of the developers of the Vostok spacecraft, recalls:

On this pre-launch day, from 10 o'clock I conducted classes with the astronauts Konstantin Feoktistov...

At 13:00 on the launch pad, Yuri Gagarin met with soldiers, sergeants and officers of the combat crew. There were Sergei Korolev, Mstislav Keldysh, industry representatives. Cosmonaut training leader Nikolai Kamanin introduced Senior Lieutenant Gagarin to the audience. Yuri Alekseevich "made a short but heartfelt speech, thanked those present for their great work in preparing the launch of the ship", - Nikolai Petrovich Kamnin noted in his diary entries. The need for such a meeting (which later became a good tradition for all astronauts going on a flight) was insisted Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. Here is how one of the rocket scientists recalls this episode:

“After this meeting, we went to the “Marshal’s” house (Marshal Nedelin usually stayed in it), where Yu.A. Gagarin, G.S. Titov, E.A. Karpov, doctor A.V. Nikitin and I were to spend the night before the start... The organizer of the Cosmonaut Training Center Colonel of Medical Service Yevgeny Karpov says:

From the diary entries of Nikolai Kamanin: “... in the “Marshal's” house, together with Yura, I tried a very hearty, but not particularly tasty lunch of an astronaut in tubes of 160 grams each: for the first - sorrel puree with meat, for the second - meat pate and for the third - chocolate sauce. Yura feels great. Blood pressure - 115/60, pulse - 64, temperature - 36.8 ... He was glued with sensors to record physiological functions in flight. This procedure lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes, but did not affect his mood.

He loves Russian songs very much - the tape recorder works continuously. Yura sits opposite me and says: “Tomorrow we will fly, but I still don’t believe that I will fly, and I myself am surprised at my calmness.” To my question: “When did you find out that you would fly first?”, He replied: “I always considered my and Herman’s chances of flying equal, and only after you announced your decision to us, I believed in the happiness that fell to my lot make the first flight into space.

For several minutes, Yura and I worked on clarifying tomorrow's daily routine. In order to fly around the globe, it takes only an hour and a half, and the astronaut needs to board the ship 2 hours before the start and wait for the flight to begin. We must admit the imperfection of such an organization of preparation for the start. This question occupied me, Korolev and the doctors. We tried to reduce the astronaut's waiting time for a flight to at least 1 hour and 30 minutes, but nothing came of it. It takes more than an hour just to close the hatch and to remove the installer and trusses. It takes 20 minutes to check the suit, communications and equipment of the ship. We all understand very well that the inactive waiting for the launch is a very unpleasant necessity for an astronaut, and therefore I will keep Yura in radio conversations and inform him about the progress of preparations for the flight ... "

Recalls Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin:

From the diary entries of Nikolai Kamanin: “... At 21.30 Korolev came in, wished good night and went to bed. Yura and Herman are also going to sleep, I can hear their conversation in the next room. So, tomorrow the greatest feat will be accomplished - the world's first manned flight into space. And this feat will be accomplished by a modest Soviet man in the form of a senior lieutenant of the Air Force - Gagarin Yury Alekseevich. Now his name does not say anything to anyone, but tomorrow it will fly around the whole world, and humanity will never forget it.”

April 12, 1961 Legendary: "Let's go!"

Early morning (local time - 4 am). Vostok Leading Designer Oleg Ivanovsky and fitters Vladimir Morozov and Nikolai Seleznev- went to the start, taking from the doctors a container with food for the astronaut. We took the elevator upstairs and put the groceries in.

5:00 - ship refueling and final checks of communication and control systems begin.

5:30 - Colonel of the medical service Yevgeny Karpov wakes up Yuri Gagarin and German Titov... He remembers Evgeniy Anatolievich Karpov:

6:00 - pre-launch meeting of the State Commission was held. It was surprisingly simple and short. All reports were reduced to one phrase: "There are no comments, everything is ready, there are no questions, you can launch."

After Yuri Gagarin and German Titov were dressed in spacesuits, “USSR” was neatly written on the helmets with red nitro paint. Somehow they didn’t think about it before - they realized it at the last moment: so that when they landed, the Soviet space explorer would inadvertently be mistaken for a foreign intelligence officer ...

Everyone is waiting for the astronauts on the launch pad...

6:50 - LAZ-695B bus is shown on the concrete road. Getting closer. Stops almost at the very rocket. The doctor jumped out first and helped Yuri Gagarin get out. Evgeny Karpov and Pavel Popovich helped German Titov. Saying goodbye to Gagarin, Titov returned to the bus.

A short report to the Chairman of the State Commission, last parting words...

Seeing off and hugging Gagarin before boarding the elevator turned out to be much more than the agreed schedule somewhere provided. Instead of wishing a happy journey, some said goodbye and even cried... Stingy, but reliable newsreel footage of this moment has been preserved - the merit of the cameramen of the Mosnauchfilm studio.

And now the elevator lifts Yuri to the top of the rocket...

7:12 - supported by senior design engineer Fyodor Vostokov on the one hand and Oleg Ivanovsky on the other, Yuri Gagarin sat in a chair and began checking radio communications and the spacesuit, switched the radio line to the phones of the helmet.

A connection has been established between the launch complex bunker and the Vostok spacecraft. Prior to the descent into the bunker of Chief Designer Sergei Korolev, communication with Yuri Gagarin was maintained by Nikolai Kamanin, Yuri Bykov (Chief Designer of NII-695 of the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on Radio Electronics) and Pavel Popovich ...

7:50 - the command “Ready for two hours!”

After closing the entrance hatch of the ship, the indicator on the control panel in the bunker did not work, confirming the tightness. At about 8 o'clock in the morning, the re-opening and closing of the hatch with a check of the end contact promptly (the hatch cover was fastened with 32 nuts!) was done by O. G. Ivanovsky and fitter V. I. Morozov. No other incidents were recorded at the start of Vostok.

8:45 - the command sounds “Ready for fifteen minutes! Duty calculation to leave the start! Take the maintenance farms away!”

8:50 - all pre-launch work completed, Nikolai Kamanin announced a 10-minute readiness ...

Tells Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin:

Everyone was worried about the question: how will a person feel in space? Will weightlessness, for example, affect the activity of its activity, the adequacy of reactions, and the ability to make the right decisions?

The Vostoks provided for a fully automated ship control cycle: from launch to landing. And only if the automation failed, the astronaut had to switch to manual control. However, before that, he had to overcome a special "logical lock" - dial a certain three-digit number on the six-button remote control, and only after that he could turn on manual control.

For fear of unpredictable actions of the astronaut, it was decided not to tell him the code in advance. A sealed envelope with a "magic number" was glued to the interior of the cockpit next to Gagarin's chair. It was enough to break the seal to see the treasured number behind the opened petals of the envelope. But here's what's curious: many years later it turned out that the "magic number" - 125 - became known to Gagarin on Earth before the start. This was taken care of by the lead designer of the Vostok spacecraft Oleg Ivanovsky and the instructor-methodologist of the cosmonaut group Mark Gallai. They could not come to terms with the decision to hide from the astronaut, even for the time being, the opportunity to switch to manual control ...

Memoirs of participants in the launch on April 12, 1961 (these fragments of the interview were first heard five years after the launch of Vostok - in the spring of 1966):

Maintenance farms allocated...

9:02 - the command “One-minute readiness is announced to all services of the cosmodrome!”

Finally, the last commands of the let-in A.S. Kirillov came: “The key to the start! » - « There is a key to start!- "Start!" - and, obeying the last command, the operator pressed the button. There was a volcanic hum of engines, the rocket slowly broke away from the launch pad and, quickly picking up speed, disappeared from sight. "Go! »

A television camera was installed in the cockpit, broadcasting a picture to the launch complex - a novelty of the equipment of that time, the Tral-T system (which, however, had very modest characteristics: the number of lines in the frame was only 100, and not 625 as in conventional television; frame rate - 10 Hz; the number of gradations in brightness - 8). But it was the world's first space television! And the negotiations of Sergei Korolev (call sign "Dawn 1") and Yuri Gagarin (call sign " Kedr") were recorded on tape in the launch complex and on-board tape recorder of the spacecraft:

There is no other audio or newsreel of the launch of the Vostok spacecraft, which can also be considered genuine. Everything at the spaceport was in the strictest secrecy. By the time the rocket was launched, the cameramen sent to Baikonur were taken to a “safe distance” ... six kilometers from the launch pad.

In fairness, it should be noted that, starting from the next human launch into outer space (the flight of German Titov on August 6, 1961), a small group of journalists was always present at Baikonur (it was called the “cosmodrome press”) - representatives of news agencies, central newspapers, radio and television. Thanks to them, over time, an impressive library was collected, a sound and film library of the life of the cosmodrome.

Journalistic work in Baikonur quickly acquired its own style and gave rise to certain traditions. For example, it was strictly forbidden to use the information received, the observations made. All the details are in a common boiler, and how to deal with them is a personal matter for everyone.

TASS scientific observer Alexander Romanov became the first correspondent accredited to Baikonur. The team of journalists who covered the space launches of the 1960s included Nikolai Denisov, Sergei Borzenko, Vasily Peskov, Yuri Letunov, Yaroslav Golovanov, Viktor Bolkhovitinov, Vladimir Gubarev, Boris Konovalov and others.

The well-known footage of Sergei Korolev's communication from the launch pad bunker with Yuri Gagarin, who was in the spacecraft, was filmed much later, and not on April 12, 1961 - especially for documentary films.

Once again, all the main participants in the launch of the Vostok spacecraft were gathered at the cosmodrome and a dramatization of the historical event was effectively filmed on color film. It is quite possible that such pseudo-documentary (or, to use the modern term, “reenactment of events”), given the total secrecy in the USSR of everything related to astronautics, gave reason to doubt to some journalists and writers: did Gagarin really fly into space? Listen and compare the previous recording (tape census of April 12, 1961) with this snippet of newsreel sound:

Man in space!

9:07 - (in the technical report, the launch time is 09:06:59.7) On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin went down in history:

09:18:07 - the Vostok spacecraft separated from the launch vehicle. The overload is over.

From the diary entries of Nikolai Kamanin, Deputy Chief of Combat Training of the Air Force: “The start went great. G-forces in the launch site had no noticeable effect on the cosmonaut's voice. The radio connection was good... At the time of the transition from the launch to Kolpashevo, there were several unpleasant seconds: the cosmonaut did not hear us, and we did not hear him. I don’t know how I looked at that moment, but Korolev, who was standing next to me, was very worried: when he took the microphone, his hands trembled, his voice broke, his face twisted and changed beyond recognition. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Kolpashevo and Moscow announced that communication with the astronaut had been restored and that the spacecraft had entered orbit.”

From the memoirs of the engineers of the Baikonur Cosmodrome:

Special issue of "Latest News" of the All-Union Radio

10:02 - a special issue of Latest News lasted up to 10 hours and 20 minutes, read it Yuri Borisovich Levitan :

TASS report on the world's first manned space flight:

“On April 12, 1961, the world's first spacecraft-satellite Vostok with a man on board was put into orbit around the Earth in the Soviet Union.

The pilot-cosmonaut of the Vostok satellite is a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, pilot Major Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin.

The launch of the space multi-stage rocket was successful, and after gaining the first space velocity and separation from the last stage of the launch vehicle, the satellite ship began free flight in orbit around the Earth.

According to preliminary data, the period of revolution of the spacecraft around the Earth is 89 point one tenth of a minute; the minimum distance from the Earth's surface (at perigee) is 175 kilometers, and the maximum distance (at apogee) is 302 kilometers; the angle of inclination of the plane of the orbit to the equator is 65 degrees 4 minutes.

The weight of the spacecraft-satellite with the pilot-cosmonaut is 4,725 kilograms, without taking into account the weight of the final stage of the launch vehicle.

Two-way radio communication has been established and maintained with cosmonaut Comrade Gagarin. The frequency of on-board shortwave transmitters is 9 point 19 thousandths of a megahertz and 20 point 6 thousandths of a megahertz, and in the ultrashort wave range 143 point 625 thousandths of a megahertz. With the help of radio telemetry and television systems, the state of the astronaut in flight is monitored.

Cosmonaut Comrade Gagarin endured the period of launching the Vostok satellite into orbit satisfactorily and is now feeling well. The systems that provide the necessary living conditions in the cabin of the spacecraft are functioning normally.

The flight of the Vostok satellite with pilot-cosmonaut comrade Gagarin in orbit continues.

Three TASS reports were prepared on the flight of Yuri Gagarin into space. The first is "About a successful flight." It was subject to announcement immediately after the launch of the ship into orbit. If, for example, an astronaut "in case of failure of the spacecraft into orbit due to lack of speed" descended into the ocean or landed on the territory of another state, then the information about the launch of the spacecraft would facilitate the quick organization of the rescue, and also "would exclude declaration by some foreign state of an astronaut as a reconnaissance officer for military purposes. The second TASS message is “On the successful return of a man from space flight” and the third (“Appeal to the governments of other countries”) with a request to states to assist in rescuing the astronaut.

Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin recalls:

“According to the data received from the Vostok spacecraft, at 9:22 am Moscow time, pilot-cosmonaut Major Gagarin, while over South America, transmitted: “The flight is going well, I feel good.”

At 10:15 Moscow time, pilot-cosmonaut Major Gagarin, flying over Africa, transmitted from the Vostok spacecraft: “The flight is proceeding normally, I can stand the state of weightlessness well.”

At 10:25 Moscow time, after a circle around the globe in accordance with a given program, the braking propulsion system was turned on and the spacecraft-satellite with pilot-cosmonaut Major Gagarin began to descend from orbit to land in a given area of ​​the Soviet Union.

10:09:15 - the ship's orientation system brought it to its original position, and the TDU (brake propulsion system), having worked out the prescribed 40 seconds, transferred the Vostok to the descent trajectory.

From the memoirs of the mother of the cosmonaut Anna Timofeevna Gagarina: “That day I was at home, and my daughter Zoya and son Boris and his wife were going to work. I cleaned up and turned off the radio. Suddenly Marusya comes running - the wife of the eldest son, Valentina, cries and says:

... I could no longer speak, I just said: “I will go to Moscow.”

At the station I went up to the railway ticket office and gave ten rubles. The ticket costs two ninety - I took ten kopecks of change, and forgot the rest. The cashier shouts: “Give her back, she left change!” I came up, took the money, thanked him. Then I remember sitting in the car, not talking to anyone. And there our Gzhatsky went. One man came up to me, he had tears in his eyes, shook my hand tightly, and silently left.

I arrived in Moscow, moved to another train. And people are already talking about Yuri. His photograph has already been shown on television and told that he has a wife and two daughters. And I sit quietly and say to myself: “This is my son!” Well, people heard - how? Some are distrustful. In a hurry, I didn’t put on a coat, but a quilt. I think: well, what is there for me, I'm not going anywhere! I will only take the child to the kindergarten and put something on Valino. After all, quite recently, on March 25, she left them. I brought Yura's wife from the hospital and returned to my village - the children sent me a telegram: my father is sick.

And then one of the incredulous asks: “What are his children’s names?” I say: “The eldest - Lenochka, but I don’t know the youngest, because my father was not at home, and my mother did not dare to name Yura without Yura!” And the youngest, they tell me, is called Galya. Well, maybe Galya, I say. They called me while I was in the village ... "

10:48 - the surveillance radar of the radio engineering guidance point of the Engels airfield recorded a target in the south-west direction at an altitude of 8 kilometers and a distance of 33 kilometers. The target was tracked by the locator to the Earth.

10:55 - the charred descent vehicle fell on the left bank of the Volga, on the field of the Leninsky Put collective farm, thirty kilometers southwest of the city of Engels, half a kilometer from the village of Uzmorye. Leaving a round hole at the top of the hillock, he rolled and stopped a few meters from the steep slope.

The cosmonaut landed in five minutes, four kilometers from the descent vehicle, six kilometers from the Volga, one and a half from the village of Smelovka, Engelsky district, Saratov region:

The long-awaited telephone call rang out in the radio committee, and after it the teletype chirped ...

TASS report on the successful return of a man from the first space flight:

“After the successful completion of the planned research and the completion of the flight program, on April 12, 1961, at 10:55 Moscow time, the Soviet spacecraft Vostok made a safe landing in a given area of ​​the Soviet Union.

Pilot-cosmonaut Major Gagarin said: “I ask you to report to the party and the government that the landing went well, I feel good, I have no injuries or bruises.”

The implementation of a manned flight into outer space opens up grandiose prospects for the conquest of space by mankind.

Of all the spacecraft systems, the landing system was of particular difficulty. Fearing overload, when hitting the ground, it was decided not to risk lowering the astronaut in the apparatus itself. The system was made two-stage: the descent vehicle and the astronaut landed separately!

At an altitude of 7 kilometers, the hatch was fired, through which the astronaut ejected along with the chair. The astronaut was in free fall, waiting for his parachute to open, to a height of 4 kilometers. Finally, the main parachute opened, and then the seat was separated, which fell freely. The descent vehicle on its own parachute landed near ...

Participants in the launch of the Vostok spacecraft say:

Due to a failure in the braking system, the landing did not take place in the planned area (the estimated landing point of the ship was 110 kilometers south of Stalingrad), but with a flight relative to the calculation - in the Saratov region, not far from the city of Engels.

The first descent vehicle of the spacecraft was noticed by a collective farm mechanic Anatoly Mishanin. He rode a motorcycle along the edge of the field and slowed down at an outlandish two-meter metal ball. Don't be afraid to approach. Touched. The casing of the apparatus was still hot.

Anatoly climbed inside the open hatch, saw the control panel. Everything was wonderful: there were light filters on the windows, signs all around, buttons, handles. The collective farmer was especially struck by a small globe and space food in tubes, reminiscent of toothpaste.

To the villagers who ran up, Mishanin began to distribute an emergency supply of food for the astronaut ...

Everyone tried to tear off a piece of skin from the descent vehicle: maybe it will come in handy in the household (the photo shows how well the collective farmers managed to pluck the spacecraft):

But the military arrived in time to cordon off the capsule with a makeshift fence: wooden pegs and a cord. The engineers of the special search service of the Air Force, who flew in after, took the readings of the instruments, turned off the power, and fixed the position of the handles and toggle switches.

Picking up one of the crowbars that the locals brought to dismantle the apparatus, the military knocked out a historical date on it with a chisel and nailed it into a hole next to the Vostok. And in the hole from the first touch of the "ball" they dug a wooden post with a sign:

After that, the KGB workers who arrived in the landing area began to seize the details of the spacecraft from the local population. Cynologists with dogs were sent from Saratov to help the specialists. Collective farmers gave away the “souvenirs” captured from the “Vostok” with tears in their eyes ...

And a resident of the village of Smelovka, the forester's wife Anna Takhtarova and her six-year-old granddaughter Rita were the closest to the landing site of Yuri Gagarin. At that time, they were planting potatoes in the garden and watched as a parachutist in an unusual orange robe landed in a field, not far from the house ...

Later, in one of the interviews Anna Akimovna Takhtarova recalled: “At first I was scared, ran away from him, and then looked back, and he ... smiles.”

On the eve of 1962, Yuri Gagarin, a graduate of the Saratov flying club, recorded the following sound letter addressed to Anna Takhtarova and the Saratov pilots:

In search of the landed cosmonaut, a team flew out from the Engels airfield in a Mi-4 helicopter. But Gagarin was not near the descent vehicle. Local residents reported that the astronaut left by truck for the city. The helicopter headed for Engels. On the way, a truck was seen from which Gagarin waved his arms. He was picked up, and the helicopter flew to the base, sending a radiogram: "The astronaut was taken on board, I'm going to the airfield" .

Gagarin was already waiting there. The entire leadership of the base was present. The cosmonaut was handed a congratulatory telegram from the Soviet government. On Pobeda, Yuri Alekseevich was taken to the control room, and then to the headquarters of the base, for communication with Moscow. By noon, two planes arrived at the airfield from Baikonur. Il-18 and An-10, they were the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Philip Agaltsov and a group of journalists.

For three hours, while establishing contact with Moscow, Gagarin gave interviews and photographed. With the advent of communication, he personally reported to Brezhnev and Khrushchev about the flight.

The return of the astronaut to Earth was reported to the Air Force Main Headquarters: “Gagarin landed safely 23 kilometers from Saratov and a few minutes later he called Moscow himself ...”

Yuri Alekseevich was expected at the factory airfield in Kuibyshev, as planned in advance.

“By this time a considerable crowd of people had already gathered here, - Nikolai Kamanin wrote in his diary on April 12, 1961. - They arrived: the secretary of the Kuibyshev regional committee of the CPSU, the chairman of the regional executive committee, the commander of the district air force and other leaders. The arrival of the authorities increased the influx of workers to the airfield from the factory. I had to order the commander of the Il-14 plane, on which Gagarin and Agaltsov flew in, to taxi to the farthest parking lot.

Before we had time to drive up to the plane in cars, a large crowd formed here as well. The door of the plane opened, and Yura was the first to descend - he was in a winter flight helmet and in a blue overalls of a spacesuit. All the nine hours that had passed from the moment he boarded the spacecraft to this meeting at the Kuibyshev airfield, I was worried and worried about him, as if he were my own son. We hugged tightly and kissed each other. Cameras clicked from all sides, the crowd of people grew. There was a danger of a big crush, and although Yura smiled, he looked very overtired. The hugging and kissing had to stop. I asked Agaltsov and Yura to get into the car and immediately go to the dacha of the regional committee. About three hours later, Rudnev, Korolev, Keldysh and other members of the commission flew in from Tyura-Tam * ...

At ten o'clock in the evening everyone gathered at the table. There were six cosmonauts, members of the State Commission, leaders of the region ... They made toasts, but drank very little - it was felt that everyone was very tired. At eleven o'clock they went to their bedrooms. Thus ended this anxious, joyful, victorious day.

April 12, 1961, mankind will never forget, and the name of Gagarin will forever fit into history and be one of the most famous.

19:00 - All-Union Radio "Latest News" went on the air, lasting 24 minutes. Release content snippet:

“President of the United States of America Kennedy congratulated Soviet scientists and engineers on their outstanding achievement - the launch of a spacecraft with a man on board and its safe return to earth.

“The achievement of the USSR, which put a man into orbit and returned him safely to earth,” Kennedy declared, “represents an outstanding technological success. We congratulate the Soviet scientists and engineers who made this feat possible.

The exploration of our solar system is a goal that we and all mankind share with the Soviet Union, and this success is an important step towards this goal.”

Here is what the People's Artist of the Soviet Union Olga Lepeshinskaya told us:

- What we heard on the radio today is so great that it's hard to find words to describe how much it means to humanity.

I have just arrived from Tselinograd and I am very sorry that this amazing news did not find me there. I really wanted to hear about her in the circle of those wonderful people whom we met in the virgin lands.

A portrait of Yuri Gagarin was shown on TV. Apparently, he is young, very young. We met people like him, his peers, in Tselinograd, and I thought, looking at this brave, simple Soviet man, that there are many like him in our country.

Yuri Gagarin is proud of both our Soviet Union and all progressive mankind, for they move time forward.

About the events at the Baikonur Cosmodrome that took place on April 12, 1961, one of the developers of the radio-electronic equipment of the Vostok spacecraft, Professor Boris Vasiliev, recalls:

- With great pleasure I will talk with Comrade Gagarin, - said Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev.

Picking up the phone, Nikita Sergeevich says:

- Glad to hear from you, dear Yuri Alekseevich.

GAGARIN. I have just received your welcome telegram in which you congratulate me on the successful completion of the world's first space flight. I sincerely thank you, Nikita Sergeevich, for this congratulation. I am happy to report to you that the first space flight has been successfully completed.

Khrushchev. I cordially greet and congratulate you, dear Yuri Alekseevich. You were the first in the world to make a space flight. With your feat, you glorified our Motherland, showed courage and heroism in carrying out such a responsible task, with your feat you made yourself an immortal person, because you were the first person to penetrate into space.

Tell me, Yuri Alekseevich, how did you feel during the flight, how did this first space flight proceed?

GAGARIN. I felt good. The flight was very successful, all the equipment of the spacecraft worked accurately. During the flight, I saw the earth from a great height. Seas, mountains, big cities, rivers, forests were visible.

Khrushchev. Can you say that you felt good?

GAGARIN. You correctly said, Nikita Sergeevich, I felt good in the spaceship, like at home. Once again, thank you for your heartfelt congratulations and greetings on the successful completion of the flight.

Khrushchev. I am glad to hear your voice and greet you. I will be glad to meet you in Moscow. Together with you, together with all our people, we will solemnly celebrate this great feat in space exploration. Let the whole world look and see what our country is capable of, what our great people, our Soviet science can do.

GAGARIN. Let now all countries catch up with us!

Khrushchev. Correctly! I am very glad that your voice sounds cheerful and confident, that you are in such a wonderful mood. You are correct in saying that let the capitalist countries catch up with our country, which paved the way into space and sent the world's first cosmonaut. We are all proud of this great victory.

Present here Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan, he sends you heartfelt congratulations and greetings.

GAGARIN. Please convey my gratitude to Anastas Ivanovich and best wishes to him.

Khrushchev. Tell me, Yuri Alekseevich, do you have a wife, children?

GAGARIN. There is also a wife, Valentina Ivanovna, and two daughters - Lena and Galya.

Khrushchev. Did your wife know that you would fly into space?

GAGARIN. Yes, I knew, Nikita Sergeevich.

Khrushchev. Give my heartfelt regards to your wife and your children. Let your daughters grow up and be proud of their father, who accomplished such a great feat in the name of our Soviet Motherland.

GAGARIN. Thank you, Nikita Sergeevich. I will convey your regards to them and will forever remember your heartfelt words.

Khrushchev. Are your parents, mother and father, still alive? Where are they now, what are they doing?

GAGARIN. Father and mother are alive, they live in the Smolensk region.

Khrushchev. Convey my heartfelt congratulations to your father and mother. They have the right to be proud of their son, who accomplished such a great feat.

GAGARIN. Thank you very much, Nikita Sergeevich. I will pass on your words to my father and mother. They will be glad and deeply grateful to you, our party and the Soviet government.

Khrushchev. Not only your parents, but our entire Soviet Motherland is proud of your great feat, Yuri Alekseevich. You have accomplished a feat that will live through the ages.

Once again, I sincerely greet you on the successful completion of the first space flight. See you soon in Moscow. Wish you all the best.

GAGARIN. Thank you, Nikita Sergeevich. Once again I thank you, my dear Communist Party, and the Soviet government for the great confidence placed in me, and I assure you that I am ready to continue to fulfill any task of the Soviet Motherland. Goodbye, dear Nikita Sergeevich.

P. S. The White House immediately learned about Yuri Gagarin's flight.

Fifteen minutes after the launch of Vostok, signals from the spacecraft were taken by observers from the American Shamiya radar station located in the Aleutian Islands. Five minutes later, an emergency cipher went to the Pentagon. The night watchman, having received her, immediately called home Jerome Weisner- Advisor to President Kennedy. A sleepy Weisner glanced at his watch. It was 1:30 am Washington time. Exactly 23 minutes have passed since the start of Gagarin ...

NASA officials and American astronauts were informed of the event at 4:00 am (Washington time). For Alan Shepard, who was being trained as the first astronaut of the United States of America, this news was a major shock:

“... In the middle of the night the phone rang. Waking up from a deep sleep, I did not immediately make out what was happening and reached for the telephone receiver.

Is that Commander Shepard?

Yes, it's Shepard.

- Did you hear the news?

I listened carefully.

- What's the news?

- The Russians sent a man into space!

I sat on the bed, rubbing my eyes.

- What did they do? I asked.

- They sent a man into orbit.

The telephone receiver almost fell out of my hand. I sat silently for a few seconds.

- Are you joking?

The caller was an engineer from NASA.

"I would never allow myself to do that, Commander," he said, somewhat apologizing for delivering such shocking news. - They did it. They launched a man into orbit.

I politely thanked the engineer and hung up. The same thought swirled in my head: “I could have been there three weeks ago” ... "

* Since 1955, the cosmodrome has been built near the Tyura-Tam (Tyuratam) junction of the Central Asian Railway. Therefore, the name "Tyura-Tam" in the early years just meant what we are used to today - "Baikonur Cosmodrome". Meanwhile, the village of Baikonur itself is much further, a few tens of kilometers from the Launch Rocket Complex of the cosmodrome, than the Tyura-Tam railway station.

Read the series of publications “Yuri Gagarin. Audio chronicle of April 1961. Tsiolkovsky and Korolev. A bit of history." ○ “These are taken as astronauts!” ○ "Most Exciting Day" (April 12, 1961)○ Top Secret (April 13, 1961)○ "The lace is untied..." (April 14, 1961)○ Gagarin Constellation (April 15–16, 1961)○ "Yuri the First and Yuri the Second" (April 17, 1961)○ ““Yevtushenko of Discord” or how Kobzon shamed Gagarin...”

BORN:

1723 - Franz Anton (Francesco Antonio) BUSTELLI
/Franz Anton (Francesco Antonio) BUSTELLI/
(1723 — 18.4.1763), porcelain maker of the Rococo period. Parents - Italians, place of birth - Switzerland, place of work - Germany.

1823 - Alexander Nikolaevich OSTROVSKY
(1823 — 14.6.1886), playwright, author of 47 plays, including "Thunderstorm", "Forest", "Dowry", "Talents and Admirers".

A. N. Ostrovsky remained in the history of Russian literature not just as the “Columbus of Zamoskvorechye”, as literary criticism called him, but the creator of the Russian democratic theater, who applied the achievements of Russian psychological prose of the 19th century. to theater practice. This outstanding playwright is a rare example of stage longevity, his plays do not leave the stage - this is a sign of a truly folk writer. Many of his works were filmed or served as the basis for the creation of film and television scripts. Among the film adaptations most popular in Russia is Konstantin VOINOV's sparkling comedy Balzaminov's Marriage (1964, starring Georgy Vitsin). The movie "Cruel Romance", brilliantly shot by Eldar Ryazanov based on "Dowry" (1984), is admirable. In 2005, director Evgeny GINZBURG received the main prize (Grand Prix "Garnet Bracelet") of the eleventh Russian Festival "Literature and Cinema" (Gatchina) "for an incredible interpretation of the great play by A. N. Ostrovsky" Guilty Without Guilt "in the film" Anna "(2005, script by G. DANELIA and R. IBRAGIMBEKOV; starring opera singer L. KAZARNOVSKAYA).

1839, 170 years ago - Nikolai Mikhailovich PRZHEVALSKY
(1839 — 1.11.1888), Russian traveler and naturalist. Full member of the Russian Geographical Society (1864). Undertook several expeditions to Central Asia. In 1878 he was elected an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences. Major General (1886).

The Academy of Sciences and scientific societies around the world welcomed Przewalski's discoveries. The Zagadochny Ridge discovered by him is called the Przhevalsky Ridge. His greatest merits are the geographical and natural-historical study of the Kun-Lun mountain system, the ranges of Northern Tibet, the Lop-Nor and Kuku-Nor basins and the sources of the Yellow River. In addition, he discovered a number of new forms of animals: a wild camel, Przewalski's horse, a Tibetan bear, a number of new species of other mammals, as well as huge zoological and botanical collections containing many new forms, later described by specialists. Being a well-educated naturalist, Przhevalsky was at the same time a born wanderer who preferred a lonely steppe life to all the benefits of civilization. Thanks to his persistent, resolute nature, he overcame the opposition of Chinese officials and the resistance of local residents, sometimes reaching open attacks and skirmishes. The Academy of Sciences awarded Przhevalsky with a medal with the inscription: "To the first researcher of the nature of Central Asia."

1850 - Nikolai Dmitrievich GOLITSYN
(1850 — 2.7.1925), prince, the last prime minister of tsarist Russia. He stayed in this position for a little over two months.

After the October Revolution, he was arrested several times and was eventually shot.

1866 - Sergey Nikolaevich MYASOEDOV
(1866 — 31.3.1915), gendarmerie colonel.

There were grounds for accusing the colonel of many sins, but they hanged him for espionage, in which he was not involved. It was one of the loudest cases of that time, since Myasoedov turned out to be the smallest fry in it.

For the first time he was accused of espionage back in 1912, and then everything ended with a duel between the gendarmerie officer and the leader of the Octobrist party A. I. Guchkov, who made a report “On the disclosure of a spy organization” in the State Duma. Newspapers that had previously accused the colonel published denials. With the outbreak of the World War and the subsequent defeats of the Russian army, the version of espionage arose again. To the former enemies of the colonel, a new, even more powerful one was added - the supreme commander in chief, Grand Duke NIKOLAI NIKOLAEVICH. Myasoedov was used as a means to topple Minister of War V. A. SUKHOMLINOV, whom the Grand Duke tried with all his might to destroy in order to blame him for all the failures. In early March, Myasoedov was arrested (as well as his wife, all close and distant acquaintances), and on March 31 a trial took place. All the charges were very doubtful, but the colonel's fate was sealed. The performers were in such a hurry that they first hanged the convict and only then approved the verdict. Myasoedov tried to commit suicide before his execution by cutting the carotid artery, but he was given medical assistance, brought to his senses, in order to be immediately executed. The head of counterintelligence, Colonel BATYUSHIN, will not be placed in the general's turn. General M. D. Bonch-Bruevich, who led the investigation, will be appointed Chief of Staff of the 6th Army and will be honored with a walk arm in arm with the Supreme Commander. Sukhomlinov was dismissed from the post of minister, later arrested and placed in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Already under the Provisional Government, he was sentenced to indefinite hard labor, although most of the accusations were not confirmed, including treason. The prosecutor in his case will say: “What they (Myasoedov and others arrested with him) did, what was found from them, on the basis of what data they were convicted, we do not know and cannot know.” And he will continue that they were convicted, and some were hanged, but the court does not execute innocent people. The former minister will be lucky: according to the amnesty announced by the Soviet government, he will be released and go into exile.

1866 - Alexander Ilyich ULYANOV
(1866 — 20.5.1887), People's Revolutionary, elder brother of V. I. LENIN.

Alexander Ulyanov participated in illegal student meetings, demonstrations, conducted propaganda in the workers' circle. In December 1886, together with P. Ya. The members of the "Fraction" experienced, on the one hand, the influence of the works of Karl MARX, Friedrich ENGELS, Georgy PLEKHANOV, and the program documents of the "Narodnaya Volya" itself. In February 1887, Ulyanov drew up a program for the "Terrorist Faction".
On March 1, 1887, the "Terrorist Faction" planned to carry out an attempt on the life of Emperor ALEXANDER III, but the attempt was prevented, and the organizers and participants in the amount of 15 people were arrested. On April 15-19, a trial was held at which ULYANOV, SHEVYREV, ANDREYUSHKIN, GENERALOV and OSIPANOV were sentenced to death, and the rest to various terms of hard labor and further exile.
Alexander's mother, Maria Alexandrovna, wrote a petition to Alexander III for clemency and received permission to visit her son.

Alexander Ulyanov himself was asked to ask the emperor for clemency, but he refused this opportunity. According to prosecutor Knyazev, who was present at the last meeting between mother and son, Alexander said the following on this meeting: “Imagine, mother, two are facing each other in a duel. One has already shot his opponent, the other has not yet, and the one who has already fired appeals to the enemy with a request not to use the weapon. No, I can't do that."

On May 8 (20), 1887, Alexander Ulyanov and his comrades were hanged in the Shlisselburg fortress.

After his execution, 17-year-old Vladimir Ulyanov (soon - Lenin) said: "We will go the other way."

1887 - Elizaveta Ivanovna VASILIEVA / dev. DMITRIEVA, pseudonym Cherubina de GABRIAC/
(1887 - December 5, 1928), poetess, participant in one of the loudest literary hoaxes.

Her star flared up for a moment and immediately died out, followed by Akhmatova and Tsvetaeva. And if Marina accepted her, then Akhmatova never forgave her for the story with Gumilev.

1888 - Heinrich Gustavovich NEIGAUZ
(1888 — 10.10.1964), pianist, teacher, People's Artist of the RSFSR. His students were Svyatoslav RICHTER and Emil Gilels.

1912 - Efim Zakharovich KOPELYAN
(1912 — 6.3.1975), theater and film actor, People's Artist of the USSR. He gave 40 years to the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theatre, and the cinema remembered his roles in such films of different genres as The Elusive Avengers, Crime and Punishment, Straw Hat.

And the work in the television series "Seventeen Moments of Spring" became quite special, where the author's text, uttered by his unforgettable voice, sounds behind the scenes.

1921 - James DOHERTY
/James DOUGHERTY/
(1921 — 15.8.2005) , Marilyn Monroe's first husband.

Everyone called him Jim back then, and her full name was Norma Jean BAKER. She had just turned 16, she was an ordinary girl from a small town, no star or blonde. She called him Daddy, he went to sea, and in 1946, four years later, they separated. A year later, she will get her first role, and he will become a policeman and give the service a quarter of a century. He will be married twice more, but he will only talk about his first love years later, and in 1997 the book he wrote, Norma Jean with Love, Jimmy, will be published. He will outlive everyone - and who was with him, and who was with her.

1922 - Harold WASHINGTON
/Harold WASHINGTON/
(1922 — 25.11.1987), first black mayor of Chicago (1983–87).

According to various estimates, from 200 to 500 thousand people came to say goodbye to him. Some of the city's educational and cultural institutions are named after him.

1931 - Leonid Pavlovich DERBENYOV
(1931 — 22.6.1995), songwriter.

Having worked as a lawyer for five years after graduating from the institute, he then devotes himself entirely to creativity: he writes for films (“Song about Bears”, “Island of Bad Luck”, “Song about Hares”, “Volcano of Passions” in Gaidai’s comedies), collaborates with many famous composers , already known and just starting their way performers. Among his most famous works are “The best city on earth”, “There is only a moment”, “Kings can do everything”, “The half-educated magician”, “You, I know you exist in the world”, “City flowers”, “Don't worry , aunt".

1931 - Vitaly Titovich KORZHIKOV
(1931 — 26.1.2007), poet, children's writer. He himself sailed all the seas and oceans on ships, therefore it is no coincidence that the first book with his main character was called "Solnyshkin's Merry Navigation".

1933 - Maria de MONTSERRAT VIVIANA CONCEPTION CABALE and FOLK
/Maria de MONTSERRAT VIVIANA CONCEPCION CABALIE i FOLC/, outstanding Spanish Catalan opera singer (soprano). The world knows her as Montserrat CABALE. She is best known for her bel canto technique and her performances in classical Italian operas by ROSSINI, BELLINI and DONIZETTI.

Rock music lovers are known for their joint album with Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury - "Barcelona" (1988). The title song, dedicated to Caballe's hometown of Barcelona, ​​became the official song of the 1992 Summer Olympics, held in the capital of Catalonia.

1937 - Igor Petrovich VOLK, cosmonaut, Honored Test Pilot of the USSR, Hero of the Soviet Union.

The illustrious Mikhail GROMOV, speaking of the Wolf’s flying skills, made the following comparison: “As much as I flew better than Nesterov, so much the Wolf flies better than me!” He was accepted into the space detachment specifically for the training of astronauts under the Buran program, which, unfortunately, was never implemented.

1940 - Mikhail Nikolaevich ROMADIN, People's Artist of Russia. Son of Nikolai ROMADIN. He worked in cinema together with Andron KONCHALOVSKY ("The First Teacher", "The Story of Asya Klyachina ..") and Andrei TARKOVSKY ("Solaris"), in his youth he was fond of abstract and surrealistic painting. Then the father did not understand this hobby, kicking his son’s paintings with his feet, but then they reconciled: “You are a great draftsman, and I am a brilliant artist.”

1944, 65 years ago - John KAY / Joachim CRAULEDAT /
/John KAY/, leader and vocalist of the American band Steppenwolf.

He was born in East Prussia, so the inhabitants of Sovetsk (then called Tilsit) can rightfully consider him their countryman. His father died during the war, his mother managed to move to West Germany with her son in 1948, and ten years later Joachim emigrated to Canada with his mother and stepfather. The school teacher could not pronounce his name and called the teenager John, and later he took another surname for himself. In 1963, the family moved to the United States, where John began to perform as a folk artist. In 1964, he became a member of the popular Toronto group The Sparrow, after the collapse of which in 1967 he founded a new group in Los Angeles called Steppenwolf, named after the famous novel Steppenwolf by Hermann HESSE. In the late 60s and early 70s, the group was one of the most popular hard rock bands in America, and their most famous song Born to Be Wild reached number two in the US charts. Sunglasses were a distinctive feature of John's appearance, since he almost lost his sight as a child.

1946 - Viktor Nikolaevich DOTSENKO, Russian director, actor, writer.

1947 - Tom CLANCY
/Tom CLANCY/, American writer, author of action-packed works.

There is no need to list what he wrote, since all this is immediately translated into other languages ​​and filmed even faster. The main character is Jack Ryan (screen incarnation - Harrison FORD), who alone will defeat any special forces, beat all the intelligence of the world, and, if necessary, will cope with the duties of the president. Who else would be accused of glorifying American power, chauvinism (no one else has such confidence in his superiority and impunity, as well as the baseness and deceit of the enemy, in the role of which the rest of the world), but Clancy is forgiven everything because of the ability to clothe his plots into an interesting form. Moreover, sometimes he also acts as a visionary, in fact predicting the events of September 11 in his novel "Debt of Honor" one to one. Only such a hit did not bring joy to anyone.

1949, 60 years ago - Yuri Dmitrievich KUKLACHEV, Soviet, Russian clown, People's Artist of Russia. Gained fame, being the first in the USSR to engage in circus work with cats. Founder and director of the Cat Theatre.

Yuri Dmitrievich himself says that he does not train cats, but simply works with them. The clown sees some peculiarity, talent in any particular cat and then develops these features in it. Kuklachev claims that cats are just like people: there are more talented ones, and there are less talented ones.

1949 - Scott TUROW
/ScottTUROW/, American lawyer and writer. Once every three years, he creates thrillers that are willingly filmed on the big and television screens. The film "The Presumption of Innocence" with Harrison Ford in the lead role brought him the greatest popularity, and in 2004 his novel "Personal Damage" was translated into Russian.

1961 - Yuri Nikolaevich GALTSEV, an eccentric artist, a man with a rubber face.

Do not even try to define the genre in which he performs, because next time he will still surprise you. And in honor of whom he was given a name, it is very easy to guess. What could be the name of the newborn on April 12, 1961? .. :)

1962 - Mikhail Borisovich TURETSKY, founder, artistic director and art director of an art group known as the Turetsky Choir.

In 1989, M. B. Turetsky began recruiting soloists for the Male Chamber Jewish Choir of the Moscow Choral Synagogue. Among the recruited participants were university graduates, students and students. At the first stage, the choir was financed by the charitable American organization "Joint". The choir was transformed into a professional team, went on tour abroad.

In 2003, the choir acquires a modern name: Art Group Turetsky Choir. This happened during a concert dedicated to the day of Ukraine and Russia. The band's repertoire is also changing. Jewish liturgy (for example, "Kaddish" or "Kol Nidrei"), songs in Yiddish and Hebrew form an essential, but not the main part of the program. There are works of Western and Russian pop music, urban folklore (for example, "Murka"), opera arias, Orthodox liturgy (for example, the prayer "Our Father"). In his book "Chorus Master" Mikhail Turetsky wrote that he did not immediately find an understanding of these changes among his colleagues in the team, but gradually all the soloists agreed with the change in the repertoire.

_______________________________________________________________________________

DEVELOPMENTS:

1272 - Master of the Teutonic Order Walter VON NORDEK conquered Mezoten (modern Mezotne) from the Latvian tribe of Semigallians.

Ernst VON RASBURG, who replaced him next year as master, continuing the expansion of the Order to the east and moving upstream of the Western Dvina, in 1275 will erect the Dinaburg fortress, but it will take about half a century to consider these lands finally conquered.

1487 - The Moscow army set out on a campaign against Kazan.

IVAN III, who did so much to strengthen the Russian state, had been at war with the Kazan Khanate for the twentieth year. Each new campaign was prepared more and more carefully, and more forces were gathered. The goal of all these efforts was not to conquer, to conquer the khanate, but to ensure Kazan's loyalty to Moscow: not to fight against Russia, not to interfere with trade, for which purpose to put your supporter on the throne, and not the enemy.

1606 - By decree of the English King JACOB I, who was also the King of Scotland JACOB VI, a new flag was introduced, later called the "Union Jack".

Since England and Scotland were then independent states, the flag was used as an additional flag on the ships of both countries to show that they serve the same sovereign.

1861 - With the bombing and capture of Fort Sumter by the southerners (April 12-14), the American Civil War began.

1918 - Since the evening of April 11, preparations began in Moscow for getting rid of the anarchist gangs that terrorized the city. At 3 o'clock in the morning on April 12, a raid was made on 26 anarchist nests at once. The operation was crowned with complete success: the anarchists were driven out of all the houses they captured, lost all their weapons and loot. More than a hundred of them were killed in skirmishes, and five hundred people were arrested. In the afternoon, the British and American envoys in Moscow, LOCKART and ROBBINS, at the invitation of Dzerzhinsky, drove around the scene in a car provided to them with an armed escort. The escort was Dzerzhinsky's assistant, the Latvian PETERS, the future jailer of Robert Bruce LOCKKART, who was accused of organizing a conspiracy against Soviet Russia. According to Lockhart, the abomination that reigned there was beyond description. The bodies have not yet been removed. Among those killed were officers in guard uniforms, students - young men no more than 20 years old, as well as typical criminals who were released from prisons by the revolution. In one of the houses, the anarchists were caught in the midst of an orgy. A young woman with loose hair lay face down on the floor. She was shot in the neck. Peters turned her over, shrugged his shoulders and said: "Prostitute ... exhausted ..."

1918 - A decree of the Council of People's Commissars on the monuments of the republic was issued.

From the decree: “In commemoration of the great upheaval that transformed Russia, the Council of People's Commissars decides:

1) Monuments erected in honor of the kings and their servants and not of interest either from a historical or artistic point of view, are subject to removal from squares and streets and partly transferred to warehouses, partly used for a utilitarian nature ...

3) ... To mobilize artistic forces and organize a wide competition for the development of projects for monuments that should commemorate the great days of the Russian Socialist Revolution.

1919, 90 years ago - The workers of the Moscow-Sortirovochnaya depot repaired three steam locomotives for free on a day off. The initiative was widely picked up, and a new word “subbotnik” appeared in the dictionary - gratuitous work for the good of the country, which was completely discredited in subsequent years.

Saturday is not bad, right? .. :)

1942 - Singer Claudia SHULZHENKO for the first time performed the song "Blue Handkerchief" to the words written by Mikhail MAKSIMOV. With this text (“The machine gunner is scribbling / For a blue handkerchief, / What was on the shoulders of dear ones!”), The song became one of the most beloved both at the front and in the rear. It happened at a concert for the military railway workers of the Volkhov depot. The first listeners awarded the singer and poet with a gift unprecedented in front-line conditions - a piece of cake and a glass of cranberries!

The song was written by the composer Jerzy PETERSBURGSKI, who fled from Poland captured by the Nazis (by the way, the author of the almost equally famous tango “Burnt Sun”), it was included in the repertoire of many performers and had more than one poetic version. Shulzhenko also performed it with success, but the song became famous and beloved by everyone with a new text, which was composed by an employee of the newspaper "In the Decisive Battle" of the 54th Army of the Volkhov Front, Lieutenant Mikhail MAKSIMOV.

He was instructed to write a note about the concert of the singer, who from the first days of the war performed in front of the soldiers and residents of besieged Leningrad, along with her ensemble - the front-line jazz orchestra of the Leningrad Military District, which she herself led together with her husband, artist Vladimir KORALLI. Upon learning that the young man was composing poetry, Klavdia Ivanovna asked me to come up with other words for the song that took the soul. In the morning, the front-line version was ready, the song immediately found a response and since then has been performed at every concert of the singer. Later, according to rumors, fate brought the composer to South America, and Maximov became the chef of one of the Leningrad restaurants.

1954, 55 years ago - Bill Haley recorded a record with the song Rock Around the Clock. The song was written back in 1952, but its success in both cases was very modest. It wasn't until the following year that a re-release took Bill Haley and his band the Comets to number one on the charts.

1956 - Alexander FEINTZIMMER's film "The Gadfly" with Oleg Strizhenov in the title role was released.

1961 - At 09:07 am Moscow time From the Baikonur cosmodrome, the Vostok spacecraft with a man on board was launched. This man's name was Yuri Alekseevich GAGARIN.

Having completed one revolution around the Earth at 10:55:34 at 108 minutes, the spacecraft completed its scheduled flight (one second earlier than planned). Gagarin's call sign was "Kedr". Due to a failure in the braking system, the descent vehicle with Gagarin landed not in the planned area 110 km from Stalingrad, but in the Saratov region, not far from Engels, and no one expected such a distinguished guest there. At 10:48, the radar at a nearby military airport spotted an unidentified target - it was a descent vehicle - and a little later, 7 km from the ground, in accordance with the flight plan, Gagarin ejected, and two targets appeared on the radar.

The first people who met the astronaut after the flight were the forester's wife Anna Akimovna TAKHTAROVA and her six-year-old granddaughter Rita. Soon, soldiers from a nearby unit arrived at the scene. One group of military men guarded the descent vehicle, while the other group took Gagarin to the location of the unit. From there, Gagarin reported by phone to the commander of the air defense division: “Please tell the Air Force Commander-in-Chief: I completed the task, landed in a given area, I feel good, there are no bruises or breakdowns. Gagarin.
By noon, two planes arrived at the Engels airfield from Baikonur: Il-18 and An-10, on which the deputy commander of the Air Force, Lieutenant General AGALTSOV, and a group of journalists arrived. For three hours, while establishing contact with Moscow, Gagarin gave interviews and photographed. With the advent of communication, he personally reported to BREZHNEV and KHRUSHCHEV about the flight. After the report, Gagarin boarded an Il-14 plane and flew to Samara (then Kuibyshev). It was decided to sit somewhere away from the city in order to avoid the hype. But while the engine was turned off and the gangway was being installed, the people gathered incredibly, the local party leadership drove up. When the ladder was mounted, Gagarin was the first to get off the plane, he greeted the audience. Gagarin was taken to the obkom dacha on the banks of the Volga. There he took a shower and ate well. Three hours after Gagarin, Korolev and several other people from the State Commission flew to Samara. At 9 pm, a festive table was laid and Gagarin's successful flight into space was celebrated. And already at 11 everyone was asleep: the accumulated fatigue affected.

Three TASS reports were prepared about Gagarin's flight into space. The first is “Successful”, the second, in case he falls on the territory of another country or in the oceans, is “Appeal to the governments of other countries”, asking for help in the search, and the third is “Tragic”, if Gagarin does not return alive. He is back. By the way, while in flight, I dashed off a note with a simple pencil, which became part of the big history of the Big Country.

Initially, no one planned a grand meeting of Gagarin in Moscow. Everything was decided at the last moment by Nikita Khrushchev. His son Sergei Khrushchev recalled: “He began by calling the Minister of Defense Marshal MALINOVSKII and saying: “He is your senior lieutenant. He needs to be promoted urgently." Malinovsky said, rather reluctantly, that he would give Gagarin the rank of captain. To which Nikita Sergeevich got angry: “What captain? At least give him a major.” Malinovsky did not agree for a long time, but Khrushchev insisted on his own, and on the same day Gagarin became a major.

1966 - American B-52 strategic bombers bombed the territory of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam for the first time. There was no talk of pinpoint strikes at that time, “carpet” bombing was used, after which nothing remained intact and intact.

1979, 30 years ago- Audiences in Australia were the first to see the film "Mad Max", which began the path to world fame for Mel Gibson.

1985 - The appearance of Boris Nikolaevich YELTSIN in Moscow - the appointment of the head of the construction department of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

1995 - Launched Yahoo!, quickly becoming one of the world's most popular Internet users.