This Soviet cosmonaut was the first human in orbit — fueling the space race
CNN
On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin circled the Earth aboard the spacecraft Vostok 1. After parachuting from the craft near the Russian village of Smelovka, Gagarin landed a hero — and a major embarrassment for the US, already stung by the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957.
In office for less than three months, Kennedy was facing down what he and his advisers suspected to be an untrustworthy Central Intelligence Agency. He would confirm his suspicion toward the end of the month, when Cuban rebels bankrolled by the agency invaded their Communist-held homeland. At a meeting with Secretary of State Dean Rusk and others on April 12, Kennedy had stressed he wanted the invasion to be a Cuban operation as much as possible, and the CIA assured him that the rebels were up to the job.
Johns Hopkins University announced Thursday that it will be cutting more than 2,000 jobs after it lost $800 million in funding from the US Agency for International Development amid the Trump administration’s effort to significantly downsize the federal government.
Facing intense pressure over the threat of a shutdown in less than two days, lawmakers are racing to push through a government funding plan by Friday’s midnight deadline.
Arizona Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva has died, according to his congressional office. He was 77.
military options” to ensure unfettered American access to the Panama Canal, one of several new directives outlined in what amounts to a major overhaul of US strategic priorities, according to a new memo that was sent to senior leaders and reviewed by CNN.
The death of a woman who was partially paralyzed in the Columbine High School shooting has been ruled a homicide, raising the death toll of the 1999 attack to 14.
President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court in a series of emergency appeals Thursday to allow him to move forward with plans to end birthright citizenship, elevating a fringe legal theory that several lower courts have resoundingly rejected.
A federal judge has ordered half a dozen federal agencies to “immediately” reinstate probationary employees fired last month as part of the Trump administration’s effort to rapidly shrink the federal workforce.
The Trump administration is expected to invoke a sweeping wartime authority to speed up the president’s mass deportation pledge in the coming days, according to four sources familiar with the discussions.
The man said he was locked in an eight-by-nine-foot room and was fed two sandwiches a day with two cups of water for years, according to a police affidavit in Connecticut.
Pete Buttigieg is expected to forgo a run for Michigan’s open US Senate seat in 2026, according to two people familiar with the former transportation secretary’s plans, setting up a potential presidential bid in 2028.
The ambiguity of the president’s warning could pave the way for lawsuits. It also could be damaging, critics say, if it has the effect of stifling freedom of speech, among the nation’s most fundamental and heralded rights.
New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s decision to not seek reelection marks the latest bit of tough luck for Senate Democrats, who face an increasingly challenging midterm election map as they fight to climb out of the minority.
President Trump’s move to revoke deportation protections for Venezuelans has sparked a sense of betrayal in Doral, Florida, a Miami suburb that is home to more Venezuelan immigrants than any other city in the US.