A photo from the Soviet daily Pravda shows Laika, on-board Sputnik II. The year was 1957 and the Soviet Union sealed one of its greatest scientific coups with the launch of the Sputnik satellite on October 4. While Moscow managed to send cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in outer space in 1961, it was a dog called Laika who claimed the honour of the first living creature to orbit Earth, sixty years ago today. (TASS / AFP)