Tomorrow, the 12th of April, will be the 55th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic flight into orbit.
On that day in 1961, he "slipped the surly bonds of earth" in the truest sense possible, and joined the pantheon of immortal heroes of mankind. Like Achilles, he will be remembered as long as men and women walk this earth, and perhaps beyond. And, in the true style of heroes, when his life came to an end seven years later, he died the death of Icarus, in the cockpit with the stick in his hand. Which certainly beats dying in an old folks home with a tube up your nose, wrinkled, forgotten and smelling of urine.