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~ Soviet cosmonaut Major Yuri Gagarin, first man to orbit the earth, is shown in his space suit. (AP Photo/File)
This April provided an opportunity to ponder two major anniversaries of events in the history of the Soviet Union, which collapsed 30 years ago. One was its zenith, and the other its absolute low point.
The zenith occurred on April 12, 1961 when 27-year-old USSR air force pilot Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. He traveled aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft.
The low point arrived 25 years later, on April 26, 1986. On that date the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukrainian region of the USSR exploded. It became the world’s worst nuclear disaster.