Valentina Tereshkova was born on the 6th of March 1937 in Bolshoye Maslennikovo, a small village along the Volga River. Her family moved to Yaroslavl after her father Vladimir died in the Finnish Winter War when she was only two years old.
Nikolai Kamanin approved placing five female cosmonauts in training starting in 1963 after reading American media reports about female pilots. On the 16th of February 1962 Tereshkova was chosen from 400 candidates who met initial requirements for the group.
Vostok 6 launched on the morning of the 16th of June 1963 after a two-hour countdown with Tereshkova orbiting Earth 48 times. She spent 2 days 22 hours and 50 minutes in space before ejecting at about 4 miles above Earth to make a parachute landing north-east of Karaganda Kazakhstan.
Superiors assigned political roles instead because the space program refused to risk losing another hero following Yuri Gagarin's death. The female cosmonaut team disbanded in October 1969 meaning no woman would fly again until 1982.
On the 4th of December 2011 she entered the national State Duma representing the Yaroslavl Oblast as part of United Russia party. On the 18th of September 2016 Tereshkova was re-elected to the 7th State Duma serving as deputy chairperson of the Federal Structure committee.