1st human to go into space Yuri Gagarin died in a MiG crash

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who became the first human to go into space on April 12, 1961, died while test-piloting a MiG fighter plane in 1968. Documents declassified in 2011 revealed "one of the probable reasons" for the crash was a sharp manoeuvre to avoid a weather balloon following which Gagarin and co-pilot Vladimir Seryogin lost control of the aircraft.