John Glenn John Glenn Colonel John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was a United States Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962. Following his retirement from NASA, he served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic United States Senator from Ohio. Before joining NASA, Glenn was a distinguished fighter pilot in World War II, China and Korea. He shot down three MiG-15s, and was awarded six Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen Air Medals. In 1957, he made the first supersonic transcontinental
John Ford (New York state senator) John Ford (New York state senator) John Ford (July 28, 1862 – July 1941) was an American lawyer and politician from New York. Born in Orleans County, New York, he attended occasionally the district schools, and worked as a farm laborer. While working in the stone quarries of Medina, he learned privately, and attended Medina Academy for five months, so that he could go to college. In a competitive examination, he won a free tuition scholarship at Cornell University, and graduated four years later. While at Cornell, he wrote the essay which won the first prize offered nationwide to senior