* Escape velocity is a concept, not a destination: Escaping Earth's gravity means reaching a speed where you'll never fall back down. You don't have to go to the moon or another planet to achieve this.
* Many people have achieved escape velocity: Anyone who has been in orbit around Earth has achieved escape velocity. This includes astronauts on the space shuttle, International Space Station astronauts, and even early cosmonauts.
Therefore, it's more accurate to say the first people to achieve escape velocity were the crew of Vostok 1, specifically Yuri Gagarin**, who became the first human to orbit Earth in 1961.
While other people were in space before Gagarin (like Alan Shepard on a suborbital flight), they didn't achieve orbital velocity, which is essential for escaping Earth's gravitational pull.
