Congressional Medal of Honor
Not to be confused with 'Medal of Honor' or 'Congressional Medal'
A Congressional Gold Medal is an award bestowed by the United States Congress; the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom are the highest civilian awards in the United States. It is awarded to persons "who have performed an achievement that has an impact on American history and culture that is likely to be recognized as a major achievement in the recipient's field long after the achievement." American citizenship is not a requirement. As of 2013 four people had been awarded more than one gold medal: Winfield Scott (1814 for War of 1812 and 1848 for Mexican–American War), Zachary Taylor (1846, 1847, and 1848 for Mexican-American War), Lincoln Ellsworth (1928 and 1936 for polar exploration), and Hyman G. Rickover (1958 for the "Nuclear Navy" and 1982 for his entire career).
History
Since the American Revolution, Congress has commissioned gold medals as its highest expression of national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions. The medal was first awarded in 1776 by the Second Continental Congress to General George Washington. Although the first recipients were military figures who participated in the American Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War, Congress broadened the scope of the medal to include actors, authors, entertainers, musicians, pioneers in aeronautics and space, explorers, lifesavers, notables in science and medicine, athletes, humanitarians, public servants, and foreign recipients.[2] The medal normally is awarded to persons, but in 1979 the American Red Cross became the only organization to be honored with a gold medal.
Process of awarding
The Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom are generally considered to carry the same level of prestige (though significantly fewer Gold Medals have been awarded). The chief difference between the two is that the Freedom Medal is personally awarded by the President of the United States, and Congressional Gold Medals are awarded by Acts of Congress (Congress may authorize the President to present the award).
Per committee rules, legislation bestowing a Congressional Gold Medal upon a recipient must be co-sponsored by two-thirds of the membership of both the House of Representatives and the Senate before their respective committees (the House Committee on Financial Services and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs) will consider it.
A Congressional Gold Medal is designed by the United States Mint to specifically commemorate the person and achievement for which the medal is awarded. Medals are therefore different in appearance, and there is no standard design. Congressional Gold Medals are considered non-portable, meaning that they are not meant to be worn on a uniform or other clothing, but rather displayed. In rare instances, miniature versions have been made for wear on clothing, suspended from a ribbon; for Lieutenant Frank Newcomb, for the men of the First Byrd Expedition of 1928-1930, and for the men who completed the first transatlantic flight in May 1919.
Often, bronze versions of the medals are struck for sale.
The Congressional Gold Medal is distinct from the Medal of Honor, a military decoration for extreme bravery in action, and from the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, presented by NASA for extraordinary accomplishment in United States space exploration.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Gold_Medal
- President George Washington
- General Horatio Lloyd Gates
- Major General "Mad" Anthony Wayne
- Major General Henry Lee III, "Light Horse Harry"
- Brigadier General Daniel Morgan
- Major General Nathanael Greene
- Captain John Paul Jones
- Commodore Thomas Truxtun
- Commodore Edward Preble
- Commodore Isaac Hull
- Commodore Stephen Decatur, Jr.
- Commodore Jacob Nicholas Jones
- Commodore William Bainbridge
- Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry
- Commodore Jesse Duncan Elliott
- Lieutenant William Ward Burrows II
- Edward McCall
- Captain James Lawrence
- Captain Thomas Macdonough
- Captain Robert Henley
- Captain Stephen Cassin
- Commodore Lewis Warrington
- Johnston Blakeley
- Major General Jacob Jennings Brown
- Brevet Lieutenant General Winfield Scott
- Brigadier General Eleazer Wheelock Ripley
- Brigadier General James Miller
- Peter Buell Porter, Secretary of War
- General Edmund Pendleton Gaines
- Major General Alexander Macomb
- President Andrew Jackson
- Admiral Charles Stewart
- Commodore James Biddle
- President William Henry Harrison
- Governor Isaac Shelby
- Colonel George Croghan
- President Zachary S. Taylor
- Crew of the USS Somers (need to find names)
- Captain Duncan Ingraham
- Frederick Rose
- President Ulysses S. Grant, born Hiram Ulysses Grant
- Cornelius Vanderbilt
- Captain Creighton
- Captain Low
- Captain Stouffer
- Cyrus West Field
- George Peabody
- George F. Robinson
- Jared Crandall and others
- John Horn, Jr.
- John Fox Slater
- Joseph Francis
- Rear Admiral George Wallace Melville and others
- Commodore Frank Hamilton Newcomb
- Captain David Henry Jarvis
- Commodore Ellsworth Price Bertholf
- Samuel Call
- Orville Wright
- Wilbur Wright
- Arthur Henry Rostron
- Paul H. Kreibohm
- Domício da Gama
- Rómulo Sebastián Naón
- Eduardo Suárez Mujica
- Charles Lindbergh
- Lincoln Ellsworth
- Roald Amundsen
- Umberto Nobile
- Thomas Edison
- First Successful Trans-Atlantic Flight
- Dr. Walter Reed
- Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, Jr. and men
- Lincoln Ellsworth
- George Michael Cohan
- Mrs. Richard Aldrich
- Anna Bouligny
- Howard Hughes
- Reverend Francis X. Quinn
- William Sinnott
- Roland Boucher
- Members of the United States Antarctic Service Expedition
- General George Catlett Marshall, Jr.
- Fleet Admiral Ernest Joseph King
- General John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing
- General William "Billy" Ledrum Mitchell
- Senator Alben William Barkley
- Irving Berlin
- Jonas Edward Salk
- Four surviving veterans of the Civil War in 1956 (find names)
- Hyman George Rickover
- Robert Hutchings Goddard
- Robert Lee Frost
- Thomas Anthony Dooley III
- Bob Hope, born Leslie Townes Hope
- Speaker of the House, Samuel Taliaferro "Sam" Rayburn
- General Douglas MacArthur
- Walter Elias "Walt" Disney
- Prime Minister Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill
- Roberto Clemente Walker
- Marian Anderson
- Lieutenant General Ira Clarence Eaker
- Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy
- John Wayne, aka Marion Mitchell Morrison (born Marion Robert Morrison)
- Max "Maxie" Leroy Anderson
- Larry Newman
- Vice President Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr.
- American Red Cross
- Kenneth Douglas "Ken" Taylor
- Simon Wiesenthal
- 1980 US Summer Olympic Team
- Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard
- Hyman George Rickover
- Fredrick Malcolm Waring
- Joseph Louis Barrow
- Louis Dearborn L'Amour
- Leo Joseph Ryan, Jr.
- Danny Thomas, born Amos Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz
- Harry S. Truman
- Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson
- Eliezer "Elle" Wiesel
- Roy Wilkins
- George Gershwin
- Ira Gershwin
- Natan Sharansky
- Avital Shcharansky
- Harry Forster Chapin
- Aaron Copland
- Mary Woodard Lasker
- Jesse Owens
- Andrew Newell Wyeth
- Laurance Spelman Rockefeller
- Matthew Bunker Ridgway
- Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
- Colin Luther Powell
- Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson
- Ruth Bell Graham
- William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr.
- Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra
- Teresa of Calcutta "Mother Teresa", born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu
- Patriarch Bartholomew I
- Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
- "Little Rock Nine" Ernest Green (b. 1941), Elizabeth Eckford (b. 1941), Jefferson Thomas (1942–2010), Terrence Roberts (b. 1941), Carlotta Walls LaNier (b. 1942), Minnijean Brown (b. 1941), Gloria Ray Karlmark (b. 1942), Thelma Mothershed (b. 1940), and Melba Pattillo Beals (b. 1941)
- Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr)
- Betty Ford
- Rosa Louise McCauley Parks
- Rev. Theodore Martin Hesburgh
- John Joseph O'Connor
- Charles Monroe Schulz
- Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła
- President Ronald Wilson Reagan
- First Lady Nancy Davis Reagan, born Anne Frances Robbins
- Navajo Code talkers Charley Tsosie Begay, Roy Begay, Samuel Hosteen Nez Begay, John Ashi Benally, Wilsie H. Bitsie, John Chee, Eugene Crawford
- General Henry Hugh Shelton
- Prime Minister Anthony "Tony" Charles Lynton Blair
- Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson
- Dorothy Irene Height
- Reverend Joseph Armstrong DeLaine
- Harry Briggs
- Eliza Briggs
- Levi Pearson
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Coretta Scott King
- Tuskegee Airmen A single gold medal was struck, to be retained by the Smithsonian Institution.
- 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, shortened from Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, born Lhamo Dondrub
- John Byron Nelson, Jr.
- Norman Ernest Borlaug
- Michael Ellis DeBakey
- Aung San Suu Kyi
- Constantino Brumidi
- Edward William Brooke III
- Native American Code talkers The gold medal representing the tribe to be retained by the Smithsonian Institution, with silver duplicates to each individual code talker.
- Women Airforce Service Pilots A single gold medal was struck, to be retained by the Smithsonian Institution. At the ceremony, every attending WASP and a family member of a deceased WASP received a bronze duplicate.
- Alden Armstrong
- Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr.
- Michael Collins
- John Herschel Glenn, Jr.
- Arnold Daniel Palmer
- Muhammad Yunus
- 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment, and Military Intelligence Service A single gold medal was struck, and it was first presented collectively at a ceremony at the U.S Capitol Visitor Center on November 2, 2011. The medal will tour various museums in conjunction with further presentation ceremonies and then be put of permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution
- Montford Point Marine Association A single gold medal was struck, and was presented collectively on June 27, 2012 in Emancipation Hall at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. The following day, in a ceremony at Marine Barracks, every attending Montford Point Marine and a family member of a deceased Montford Point Marine was presented with a bronze duplicate
- The People who died in the Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001 Three gold medals to be struck, one medal shall be given to each of the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York, and the Pentagon Memorial at the Pentagon, with the understanding that each medal is to be put on permanent, appropriate display.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks
- Raoul Wallenberg
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Congressional_Gold_Medal_recip...