President Obama awarded twenty-one Americans the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Tuesday. The medal is the highest civilian honor in the United States. President Obama has awarded 123 Medals of Freedom, the highest of any President since it was introduced by President John F. Kennedy. The honorees were given the Medals during a ceremony at the White House where a brief blurb of their life’s accomplishments was read.
Those receiving the Medal:
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar- basketball player
- Elouise Cobell (posthumous)- Native American leader
- Ellen DeGeneres- comedian, actor, talk show host
- Robert De Niro- actor
- Richard Garwin- physicist
- Bill and Melinda Gates- philanthropists
- Frank Gehry- architect
- Margaret Hamilton- mathematician and computer scientist
- Tom Hanks- actor
- Grace Hopper (posthumous)- computer programmer known as “First Lady of Software”
- Michael Jordan- basketball player
- Maya Lin- artist
- Lorne Michaels- producer, creator of Saturday Night Live
- Newt Minow- former chair of the Federal Communications Commission
- Eduardo Padrón- president of Miami-Dade College
- Robert Redford- actor
- Diana Ross- singer
- Vin Scully- baseball television announcer
- Bruce Springsteen- singer, songwriter
- Cicely Tyson- actress