Who was the second person in space?
Alan Shepard was the second person to travel into space, and the first American. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first person in space on 12th April 1961; Alan Shepard followed 23 days later on 5th May 1961.
Shepard's mission was called Freedom 7 and was the first crewed flight of Project Mercury. The entire mission lasted 15 minutes. Unlike Gagarin's mission, Freedom 7 did not go into orbit around Earth, it just went up into space and back down again.
The first American orbital crewed flight was Friendship 7 on February 20th, 1962.