Portrait of Gherman Titov

Birthday profile

Gherman Titov

Gherman Titov, Russian general, pilot, and astronaut (died 2000)

Born
September 11, 1935
Died
September 20, 2000
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1935

About Gherman Titov

Gherman Stepanovich Titov (Russian: Герман Степанович Титов; 11 September 1935 – 20 September 2000) was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut who, on 6 August 1961, became the second human to orbit the Earth, aboard Vostok 2, preceded by Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1. He was the fourth person in space, counting suborbital voyages of US astronauts Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom. Born in Altai Krai in western Siberia, Titov was the first spacefarer born in Asia. At 25 years old at launch, he remains the youngest professional astronaut and the youngest person to fly in Earth orbit. Titov's flight proved that humans could live and work in space. He was the first person to orbit the Earth multiple times (a total of 17 orbits) and to spend more than a day in space. He was also the first to sleep in orbit and to suffer from space sickness (becoming the first person to vomit in space). Titov captured the first photos of Earth from space taken by a human. He also was the first spacefarer to film the Earth, using a professional Konvas-Avtomat movie camera for ten minutes. Titov continued to work for the Soviet space program. Under the Spiral program, he trained to become the first pilot of an orbital spaceplane. However, after the death of Yuri Gagarin in a fighter jet crash in 1968, the Soviet government decided it could not afford to lose its second cosmonaut, and so Titov's career as test pilot ended. Titov served in the Soviet Air Force, attaining the rank of colonel-general. Retiring in 1992, he became a politician of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and was elected to the State Duma in 1995. Despite having been chosen second, after Gagarin, to fly into space, it was Titov who later proposed the Soviet Government regularly celebrate Cosmonautics Day on April 12, the day of Gagarin's flight. Since Daemen flew a suborbital mission, Titov remains the youngest person to fly in Earth orbit.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Gherman Titov was born

Gherman Titov was born in 1935. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1935

  • #1 song"Cheek to Cheek" – Fred Astaire
  • Top movieMutiny on the Bounty
  • Best-selling bookGreen Light - Lloyd C. Douglas

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentJesse Owens sets 3 world records in 45 minutes at Big Ten meet
  • Top headlineSocial Security Act signed into law by FDR
  • Technology milestoneRadar first demonstrated
  • Defining fadMonopoly officially released by Parker Brothers
  • Notable inventionBeer in cans
  • World population2.23 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championDetroit Tigers (World Series)
  • U.S. population127.3M

1935 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Gherman Titov's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19352026
Gas$0.19$3.45/gal
Average home$5,000$435,000
Average income$2,700$67,500
Minimum wage$0.25$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population127.3M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.