On this day in 1962 John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, a feat that had already been accomplished by the Soviet Cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin.
Glenn's craft, the Friendship 7, was pushed into space on a Mercury-Atlas Launch Vehicle and just under 5 hours later re-entered the Earth's atmosphere to splash down in the Atlantic.
This flight marked a significant step in a bitter space race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
And the Ruskies were killin' us...
