60 years ago today, 4/12/61, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly into space. He flew for a country, the USSR, that no longer exists. His mission was on a one person spacecraft called Vostok 1. He completed one (essentially) full orbit of the Earth. His mission was basically the first shot in the Space Race of the 1960's. 40 years ago today, 4/12/81, the space shuttle launched for the first time. This was the first time that a manned (more or less) reusable rocket was launched. The name of the shuttle was the Columbia. The mission commander was John Young and the pilot was Bob Crippen. It was the first time, and still to this day the only time, that a brand new manned rocket system was manned on it's very first mission. Needless to say, this upped the personal risk to a very high level for the two members of the crew. The mission was called STS-1 and lasted for 2 days. Post a coin or medallion from 1961 or 1981 or one that has a space based theme...
Those are really cool. Here's a space themed one in my collection. Not tied to April 12...but this one commemorates the USSR-GDR joint flight of Soyuz 31 in 1978. This was done in part to "beat" the US to flying members of allied nations into space.