Vostok 1, you landed at the sea

Overview
What if a technical error forced Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1 spacecraft to end prematurely?

Timeline
April 12, 1961: Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, however an electrical fire transpired within the Vostok 1. As a result Gagarin entered a secret code into the controls with Korolev's authorization and manually pilot the spacecraft to descend to the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii. The cosmonaut successfully ejected himself and splashed down to the sea while Vostok 1 went into the depth of the ocean, while the announcement about the forced landing outside the USSR from one of three carefully prepared envelopes which were sent to TASS beforehand for this mission is unsealed and aired on Radio Moscow, instead of the "successful" letter in OTL.

Fortunately for Gagarin, he landed within the sight of a passing ship so he was successfully rescued. He was sent to a Honolulu hospital while the search for the Vostok 1 capsule is being commenced.

April 13, 1961: President Kennedy issues a statement that Gagarin has been found and the U.S. will return him to the USSR in due time.

April 14, 1961: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev demands an investigation about the incident and improvements to prevent this embarrassment from happening again.

April 15, 1961: Yuri Gagarin has fully recovered and the Americans generously take him on a trip to New York, San Francisco, Honolulu and Los Angeles.

April 20, 1961: The Soviet ambassador to the USA accompanies Gagarin back to Moscow from NYC JFK airport.

May 5, 1961: NASA astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space.

May 25, 1961: President Kennedy delivers the Moon Shot speech in the Congress.

August 6, 1961: USSR is finally back on scene again by sending Gherman Titov in full orbit.

February 20 1962: John Glenn is the first American in orbit.

July 22 1962: NASA's Mariner 1 is successfully launched to fly by Venus.

1964: Leonid Brezhnev took USSR's helm.

1965: Alexei Leonov is the first person to conduct a space walk.

April 1967: USSR's Soyuz 1 ends in disaster.

1968: NASA's Apollo 8 circumlunar mission commences. Yuri Gagarin fell from Brezhnev's favor due to his experiences with the Americans, which would bar him from ever flying again.

July 1969: NASA's Neil Armstrong is the first man to land on the Moon.

1971: USSR launched the first space station Salyut 1.

1977: NASA's twin Voyager mission is launched.

1981: American space shuttle Columbia is launched.

1986: CCCP launched the Mir space station. The Challenger space disaster.

1991: Dissolution of the USSR. For this reason Yuri Gagarin and his family moved to the USA, settling in the Brighton Beach of New York.

1996: Gagarin obtained USA citizenship with his family. President Clinton and Neil Armstrong is present at his naturalized ceremony.

1997: NASA's Cassini spacecraft is launched.

1998: The International Space Station is launched.

2001: The infamous 9/11 attacks struck the American soil.

2003: USA invades Iraq.

2004: Cassini arrives at Saturn.

2008: U.S. senator Barack Obama won the presidential election.

2009: Obama is inaugurated as U.S. president.

2011: The Arab Spring revolutions.

2013: A meteor event happens in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

2016: Gagarin visits the White House and met with President Obama.