16 JANUARY 1969: SOYUZ 4 FRENCH KISSES SOYUZ 5

Soyuz 4 docks onto Soyuz 5 (by @sciencemug)

[Pictures of the soviet cosmonauts are adapted by @sciencemug from a Public Doamin image; Earth pic is a Public Domain one. (Source Wikimedia Commons)]

 Here you can have a better look of the two docked spaceships:

Soyuz 4 docks onto Soyuz 5

In blue, the path of the two cosmonauts, the red circles indicate the handrails the cosmonauts grasp to make their space stroll.

So, on this day, January the 16th, of 1969, just a few months before the US bring their men to/on the Moon, the former Soviet Union (aka USSR, aka CCCP) gets to be the first to dock two manned spaceships and to transfer crew members (Aleksei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov) from one (Soyuz 5, which commander is Boris Volynov) to the other one (Souyuz 4, which commander and only -before the docking- crew member, is  Vladimir Shatalov).

In other words, two soviet spaceships make out and, after the french kiss, one gets two humans (well, I guess two humans are better than mononucleosis...)

SPUTNIK I

by @sciencemug

 [The picture of the Sputnik I satellite is adapted from a Public Domain image by @sciencemug (source: Wikimedia Commons)] 

On this day in 1957 (the Cold War is on) the Soviet Union launches in orbit the first artificial satellite [slightly smaller than a football (58cm in diameter) and slighlty heavier than a washing machine (86.3kg)] the Sputnik I, which is the first human thing to reach the space.
This freaks the USA out, and the space race begins (plus the what-will-become-the-Internet's creation gets a big push).

19 APRIL 1971: MEET SALYUT-1, THE FIRST SPACE STATION!

Salyut-1 (by @sciencemug)

[The pictures of the Salyut-1 (a) and of the Earth (b) are adapted from Public Domain images by @sciencemug (source: Wikimedia Commons)]

This day (14 April) of 1971, the former Soviet Union (aka USSR aka CCCP) shoots into the sky a 20meter long, 4meter wide metal beast of more than 18 tons: the Salyut-1.
That’s the veeery first space station ever.
The Salyut-1 has three pressurized compartments for the crew. One of these chambers, the 7th of June, connects with the Soyuz 11 space ship which brings in the humans (aaand the space party begins).
The Homo sapiens exemplars keep spinning around in the sky for 22 days doing some science (ok, may be not a crazy space party after all...)
Then the crew goes back to the docked Soyuz 11, and gets back on Earth (suffering anyway of probably some kind of space hangover).
As for our dear space station, well, after 175 days in orbit (11th of October) it is made to plummet into the Pacific Ocean.
Farewell, Salyut-1, the veeery first space station ever.
(Hi Berny!)