Juri Gagarins Raumkapsel “Wostok 1”, originally uploaded by astirn.

It’s Yuri’s Night, the annual celebration of the 1st manned space flight . This year marks the 50th anniversary of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s historic space flight.

You can learn more about Yuri Gagarin here. You can also find a local Yuri’s Night party – there are more than 400 official parties happening worldwide this year.

If you’re in the DC area, the party’s at Science Club this year instead of out at NASA.

There was a shindig at Artisphere on Saturday, but if you’re just reading about it here, you missed it. Producer Jared Davis described this year’s featured burlesque show as “Star Trek meets Love Boat. I missed it this year despite peer-pressure from many of the participants, so I can’t really comment on whether they succeeded in achieving that lofty goal.

NASA’s Starchild webpage about Yuri Gagarin is so filled with awesome 90s web-design wonder I just have to link to it. Fortunately, there’s an even swankier update still online.