Remembering Ham, 50 years later: "The chimp that took America into space."
Fifty years ago tomorrow an African-born astronaut made it into space ahead of Soviet pioneer Yuri Gagarin. His name was Ham, a chimpanzee born in July 1957 in the rainforests of what was then the French Cameroons. He was bought by the US Air Force to be used in early space flight experiments for $457 – not a bad investment as it turned out.