List: Congressional Gold Medal recipients

by likeorhate

•  Andrew Jackson

  Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837). He was military governor of Florida (1821), commander of the American forces at the Battle of New Orleans (1815), and eponym of the era of Jacksonian democracy. A polarizing figure who dominated American politics in the 1820s and 1830s, his political ambition combined with widening political participation, shaping the modern Democratic Party.

  

  40.6%
  

  29.7%
  

  29.7%
  
•  Colin Powell

  Colin Luther Powell (born April 5, 1937) is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State (2001–2005), serving under President George W. Bush. He was the first African American appointed to that position. During his military career, Powell also served as National Security Advisor (1987–1989), as Commander-in-Chief, U.S.

  

  28.8%
  

  27.3%
  

  43.9%
  
•  Elie Wiesel

  Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE (born September 30, 1928) is a writer, professor at Boston University, political activist, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, the best known of which is Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.. His diverse range of other writings offer powerful and poetic contributions to literature, theology, and his own articulation of Jewish spirituality today.

  

  42.3%
  

  28.2%
  

  29.5%
  
•  Frank Sinatra

  Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers. " His professional career had stalled by the 1950s, but it was reborn in 1954 after he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He signed with Capitol Records and released several critically lauded albums.

  

  31.7%
  

  34.9%
  

  33.3%
  
•  George Washington

  George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 and as the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783. Because of his significant role in the revolution and in the formation of the United States, he is often referred to as "Father of His Country". The Continental Congress appointed Washington commander-in-chief of the American revolutionary forces in 1775.

  

  31.3%
  

  29.2%
  

  39.6%
  
•  George Gershwin

  George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known. He wrote most of his vocal and theatrical works, including more than a dozen Broadway shows, in collaboration with his elder brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin.

  

  26.0%
  

  30.0%
  

  44.0%
  
•  Howard Hughes

  Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American aviator, engineer, industrialist, film producer, film director, philanthropist, and one of the wealthiest people in the world. He gained prominence from the late 1920s as a maverick film producer, making big-budget and often controversial films like Hell's Angels, Scarface and The Outlaw.

  

  31.3%
  

  25.0%
  

  43.8%
  
•  Ira Gershwin

  Ira Gershwin (December 6, 1896 – August 17, 1983) was an American lyricist who collaborated with his younger brother, composer George Gershwin, to create some of the most memorable songs of the 20th century. With George he wrote more than a dozen Broadway shows, featuring songs such as "I Got Rhythm", "Embraceable You", "The Man I Love" and "Someone to Watch Over Me", and the opera Porgy and Bess.

  

  38.1%
  

  28.6%
  

  33.3%
  
•  John Wayne

  Marion Mitchell Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), born Marion Robert Morrison and better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and has become an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive voice, walk and height. He was also known for his conservative political views and his support from the 1950s for anti-communist positions.

  

  33.8%
  

  37.8%
  

  28.4%
  
•  Jackie Robinson

  Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was the first African American Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As the first black man to openly play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated African-Americans to the Negro leagues for six decades.

  

  28.3%
  

  34.3%
  

  37.4%
  
•  John Paul Jones

  John Paul Jones (July 6, 1747 – July 18, 1792) was the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to this day.

  

  29.7%
  

  32.4%
  

  37.8%
  
•  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the United States, and he has become a human rights icon: King is recognized as a martyr by two Christian churches. A Baptist minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career.

  

  22.9%
  

  31.4%
  

  45.7%
  
•  Nancy Reagan

  Nancy Davis Reagan (born Anne Frances Robbins on July 6, 1921) is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and served as an influential First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was born in New York; her parents divorced soon after her birth and she grew up in Maryland, living with an aunt and uncle while her mother pursued acting jobs.

  

  31.6%
  

  34.2%
  

  34.2%
  
•  Pope John Paul II

  The Venerable Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła (18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) served as Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death over 26 years later. His was the second-longest documented pontificate; only Pope Pius IX served longer (St Peter the Apostle is reputed to have served for more than thirty years as the first pontiff; however documentation is too sparse to definitively support this).

  

  60.0%
  

  40.0%
  

  0.0%
  
•  Ronald Reagan

  Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s. He began a career as an actor, first in commercial radio, then in motion pictures and later television. He appeared in 52 movie productions and gained enough success to become a household name.

  

  29.4%
  

  44.1%
  

  26.5%
  
•  Roberto Clemente

  Roberto Clemente Walker (August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972) was a professional baseball player and a Major League Baseball right fielder. He was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the youngest of seven children. On November 14, 1964, he married Vera Zabala at San Fernando Church in Carolina. The couple had three children: Roberto Jr. , Luis Roberto and Enrique Roberto.

  

  41.7%
  

  25.0%
  

  33.3%
  
•  Robert Frost

  Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. A popular and often-quoted poet, Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry.

  

  40.5%
  

  18.9%
  

  40.5%
  
•  Roald Amundsen

  Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (16 July 1872 – c. 18 June 1928) was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912. He was also the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage. He disappeared in June 1928 while taking part in a rescue mission.

  

  30.8%
  

  38.5%
  

  30.8%
  
•  Rosa Parks

  Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an African American civil rights activist whom the U.S. Congress later called the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement. " On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks, age 42, refused to obey bus driver James Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Her action was not the first of its kind: Irene Morgan, in 1946, and Sarah Louise Keys, in 1955, had won rulings before the U.S.

  

  56.3%
  

  18.8%
  

  25.0%
  
•  Thomas Edison

  Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor, scientist and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb.

  

  33.3%
  

  11.1%
  

  55.6%
  
•  Ulysses S. Grant

  Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant) (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) served as the 18th President of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As general-in-chief of the Union Army during the American Civil War, he led the North to victory against the Confederate States in the Civil War. Following his graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1843, Grant served as a lieutenant in the Mexican–American War from 1846 to 1848.

  

  17.6%
  

  35.3%
  

  47.1%
  
•  Walt Disney

  Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions, Disney became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world.

  

  30.0%
  

  35.0%
  

  35.0%
  
•  Winston Churchill

  Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, PC, FRS (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, an historian, writer and artist.

  

  32.7%
  

  40.8%
  

  26.5%
  
•  William Henry Harrison

  William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was the ninth President of the United States, an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. The oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the United States Declaration of Independence, Harrison died on his thirty-second day in office of complications from a cold – the shortest tenure in United States presidential history.

  

  30.8%
  

  46.2%
  

  23.1%
  
•  George Marshall

  General of the Army George Catlett Marshall (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American military leader, Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State, and the third Secretary of Defense. Once noted as the "organizer of victory" by Winston Churchill for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II, Marshall served as the U.S. Army Chief of Staff during the war and as the chief military adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

  

  50.0%
  

  25.0%
  

  25.0%