Who was the first human being to travel into space?
- A.Alexei Leonov
- B.Yuri Gagarin
- C.Neil Armstrong
- D.Rakesh Sharma
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Yuri Gagarin. The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched aboard Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961 and completed a single orbit of the Earth, becoming the first human being in space. The day is now marked every year as the anniversary of human spaceflight.
Option A, Alexei Leonov, was also a Soviet cosmonaut, but his own first came four years later, in March 1965, when he stepped out of Voskhod 2 and made the first spacewalk. Option C, Neil Armstrong, was the first person to set foot on the Moon, in July 1969, which is a different first and the commonest confusion in this question. Option D, Rakesh Sharma, was the first Indian in space, in 1984 aboard a Soviet mission, and he is offered whenever the paper wants to see if the candidate has read the words in the world rather than in India.
Read the full article: First in the World: Space, Exploration and Records
Practice Questions
View allWho was the first woman to travel into space?
- A.Svetlana Savitskaya
- B.Sally Ride
- C.Valentina Tereshkova
- D.Kalpana Chawla
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The Soviet cosmonaut flew alone aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963 and spent nearly three days in orbit, becoming the first woman in space, two years after Yuri Gagarin's flight.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first person to set foot on the surface of the Moon?
- A.Michael Collins
- B.Edwin Buzz Aldrin
- C.Yuri Gagarin
- D.Neil Armstrong
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The American astronaut commanded the Apollo 11 mission and stepped out of the lunar module on 20 July 1969, becoming the first human being to walk on the Moon.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first person to reach the South Pole?
- A.Roald Amundsen
- B.Robert Falcon Scott
- C.Robert Peary
- D.Ernest Shackleton
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The Norwegian explorer and his party reached the South Pole in December 1911, using dog sledges and a carefully laid line of supply depots, and returned safely.
Read the full explanation →Which was the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote?
- A.United States of America
- B.United Kingdom
- C.New Zealand
- D.Australia
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In 1893 New Zealand, then a self-governing colony, gave women the right to vote in national elections, the first country in the world to do so, after a long campaign led by Kate Sheppard.
Read the full explanation →Who became the first woman Prime Minister in the world?
- A.Indira Gandhi
- B.Sirimavo Bandaranaike
- C.Golda Meir
- D.Margaret Thatcher
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She became Prime Minister of Ceylon, the island now called Sri Lanka, in 1960, and was the first woman anywhere in the world to head a government as Prime Minister.
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