RAND SIMBERG: Half A Century Of Human Spaceflight. “For several years now, the date has been celebrated by spaceflight enthusiasts all over the world, at events called Yuri’s Night parties. The fiftieth anniversary should be a blowout, particularly combined with the thirtieth of the Shuttle, but the celebrations will be tinctured with sadness that we haven’t made as much progress as many hoped at the dawn of the space age, and that the Shuttle never lived up to the early promises of making space routine, reliable, affordable and safe. But a new space age is dawning now, a private one driven by profit and adventure, rather than national prestige and fickle politics, so the next half century is likely to be more exciting than the past one, with opportunities for all to go into space, and not just a few privileged government employees, whether Russian or American.”

Here’s a list of Yuri’s Night parties.