List of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients facts for kids
This is a partial list of recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, listed chronologically within the aspect of life in which each recipient is or was renowned.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded by the president of the United States "for especially meritorious contribution to (1) the security or national interests of the United States, or (2) world peace, or (3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." Honorees are selected by the president or recommended to them by the Distinguished Civilian Service Awards Board.
Contents
- Background
- List
- Awarded by John F. Kennedy
- Awarded by Lyndon B. Johnson
- Awarded by Richard Nixon
- Awarded by Gerald Ford
- Awarded by Jimmy Carter
- Awarded by Ronald Reagan
- Awarded by George H. W. Bush
- Awarded by Bill Clinton
- Awarded by George W. Bush
- Awarded by Barack Obama
- Awarded by Donald Trump
- Awarded by Joe Biden
Background
Typically the medal is bestowed upon the recipient by the sitting president who has chosen them. However, the first recipients selected by President John F. Kennedy before his assassination were formally awarded by his successor in office, Lyndon B. Johnson.
President Barack Obama awarded 123 medals, the most ever, followed by President Ronald Reagan with 100 medal recipients. Two people, Ellsworth Bunker and Colin Powell, are two-time recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Colin Powell received his second award with Distinction, while Ellsworth Bunker was given both of his awards with Distinction.
Eight Presidents have themselves received the medal either posthumously, post-presidency, or prior to being elected:
- John F. Kennedy (1963, posthumously)
- Lyndon B. Johnson (1980, posthumously)
- Ronald Reagan (1993, with Distinction)
- Gerald Ford (1999)
- Jimmy Carter (1999)
- George H.W. Bush (2011)
- Bill Clinton (2013)
- Joe Biden (2017, as Vice President; also awarded with Distinction)
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is related to, but distinct from, the Medal of Freedom, an earlier award issued between 1945 and 1963 to honor US civilian contributions to World War II.
At the age of 25, athlete and activist Simone Biles is the youngest person to receive this award as of 2022.
Declinations of the award
Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots, was offered the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Donald Trump, and initially accepted it, but changed his mind and turned down the medal after the January 6 United States Capitol attack.
Country musician Dolly Parton turned down the medal twice. Parton said she turned it down the first time because her husband was ill, and the second time because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
List
- † – Awarded posthumously
- WD – Awarded "with Distinction"
Awarded by John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy selected 31 recipients to be awarded in 1963. After his assassination they were officially awarded by Lyndon B. Johnson.
| Recipient | Year | Notes | Notable as | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marian Anderson | 1963 | Classical Contralto & First African-American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera | ||
| Ralph Bunche | WD | Political Scientist, Mediator in Israel & First person of African descent to receive a Nobel Prize | ||
| Ellsworth Bunker | WD | U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, Italy and India | ||
| Pablo Casals | Cellist | |||
| Genevieve Caulfield | Founder of the Bangkok School for the Blind in Thailand | |||
| James B. Conant | WD | Chemist, 23rd President of Harvard University & 1st U.S. Ambassador to West Germany | ||
| John Franklin Enders | Biomedical Scientist & Developer of the Measles Vaccine | |||
| Felix Frankfurter | WD | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | ||
| Karl Holton | Head of the Los Angeles County Probation Department & Director of the California Youth Authority | |||
| Robert J. H. Kiphuth | Head Coach for Men's Swimming at Yale University | |||
| Edwin H. Land | Co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation & Inventor of the Polaroid Instant Camera | |||
| Herbert H. Lehman | United States Senator from New York & 45th Governor of New York | |||
| Robert A. Lovett | WD | 4th United States Secretary of Defense | ||
| J. Clifford MacDonald | Philanthropist & President of the Arc of the United States | |||
| John J. McCloy | WD | United States Assistant Secretary of War & U.S. High Commissioner For Occupied Germany | ||
| George Meany | 1st President of AFL-CIO | |||
| Alexander Meiklejohn | Philosopher & President of Amherst College | |||
| Ludwig Mies van der Rohe | Architect | |||
| Jean Monnet | WD | Entrepreneur & Founding Father of the European Union | ||
| Luis Muñoz Marín | WD | 1st Elected Governor of Puerto Rico | ||
| Clarence B. Randall | Chairman of The Board of Inland Steel Company & Presidential Advisor | |||
| Rudolf Serkin | Pianist | |||
| Edward Steichen | Photographer | |||
| George W. Taylor | Professor of Industrial Relations at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania | |||
| Alan Tower Waterman | 1st Director of the National Science Foundation | |||
| Mark S. Watson | Editor and Correspondent for The Baltimore Sun | |||
| Annie Dodge Wauneka | Member of the Navajo Nation Council | |||
| E. B. White | Writer | |||
| Thornton Wilder | 3x Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwright & Novelist | |||
| Edmund Wilson | Writer & Literary Critic | |||
| Andrew Wyeth | Realist and Regionalist Painter & Visual Artist |
Awarded by Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson awarded 58 medals between 1963 and 1969, excluding 31 which were selected by John F. Kennedy.
| Recipient | Year | Notes | Notable as | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John XXIII | 1963 | † | Pope | |
| John F. Kennedy | † | 35th President of the United States | ||
| Dean Acheson | 1964 | WD | 51st United States Secretary of State | |
| Detlev Bronk | 6th President of Johns Hopkins University, 16th President of the National Academy of Sciences & 3rd President of Rockefeller University | |||
| Aaron Copland | Classical Composer | |||
| Willem de Kooning | Abstract Expressionist Artist | |||
| Walt Disney | Co-founder and President of The Walt Disney Company | |||
| J. Frank Dobie | Folklorist | |||
| Lena Frances Edwards | Physician & Medical Advisor to the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs | |||
| T. S. Eliot | Modernist Poet | |||
| Lynn Fontanne | Actress | |||
| John W. Gardner | 6th United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare | |||
| Theodore Hesburgh | Ordained Priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross & 15th President of University of Notre Dame | |||
| Clarence Johnson | Aeronautical and Systems Engineer & Contributing Designer to the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird | |||
| Frederick Kappel | 9th President of Western Electric & Chairman of AT&T | |||
| Helen Keller | Disability Rights Advocate, Human Rights Activist & Member of the American Foundation for the Blind | |||
| John L. Lewis | 9th President of the United Mine Workers & 1st President of the Congress of Industrial Organizations | |||
| Walter Lippmann | Founding Editor of New Republic & Political Commentator | |||
| Alfred Lunt | Actor & Director | |||
| Ralph McGill | Editor of the Atlanta Constitution & Anti-Segregationist | |||
| Samuel Eliot Morison | Maritime Historian | |||
| Lewis Mumford | Historian, Sociologist & Philosopher of Technology | |||
| Edward R. Murrow | WD | Broadcast Journalist & WWII War Correspondent | ||
| Reinhold Niebuhr | Reformed Theologian, Ethicist & Professor at Union Theological Seminary | |||
| Leontyne Price | Soprano & First African-American Soprano to Achieve International Acclaim | |||
| A. Philip Randolph | Founder and President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters | |||
| Carl Sandburg | 3x Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet | |||
| John Steinbeck | Nobel Prize Winning Writer | |||
| Helen B. Taussig | Cardiologist, Founder of Pediatric Cardiology & Co-developer of the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt Surgical Procedure | |||
| Carl Vinson | WD | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives & Father of the Two-Ocean Navy | ||
| Thomas Watson Jr. | President of the International Business Machines Corporation | |||
| Paul Dudley White | Presidential Physician to Dwight D. Eisenhower & Co-founder of the American Heart Association | |||
| Ellsworth Bunker | 1967 | WD | U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States and South Vietnam | |
| Robert Komer | 3rd Deputy National Security Advisor & U.S. Ambassador to Turkey | |||
| Eugene M. Locke | U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan & South Vietnam | |||
| Robert McNamara | 1968 | 8th United States Secretary of Defense | ||
| James E. Webb | 2nd Administrator of NASA | |||
| Eugene R. Black Sr. | 1969 | 3rd President of the World Bank Group | ||
| McGeorge Bundy | 5th United States National Security Advisor | |||
| Clark Clifford | WD | 9th United States Secretary of Defense & Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board | ||
| Michael DeBakey | Chairman of the Department of Surgery, President, and Chancellor of Baylor College of Medicine at the Texas Medical Center | |||
| David Dubinsky | President of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union | |||
| Ralph Ellison | Writer & Literary Critic | |||
| Henry Ford II | President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Ford Motor Company | |||
| W. Averell Harriman | WD | 48th Governor of New York & 11th United States Secretary of Commerce | ||
| Bob Hope | Comedian & Vaudevillian | |||
| Edgar Kaiser | Member of the Committee on Urban Housing & General Manager of the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation | |||
| Mary Lasker | Philanthropist & Founder of the Lasker Foundation | |||
| John Macy | President of the United States Civil Service Commission | |||
| Gregory Peck | Actor & Humanitarian | |||
| Laurance Rockefeller | Conservationist & Philanthropist | |||
| Dean Rusk | WD | 54th United States Secretary of State | ||
| Walt Whitman Rostow | 6th United States National Security Advisor | |||
| Merriman Smith | White House Correspondent for United Press International & Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist | |||
| Cyrus Vance | 7th United States Secretary of the Army & 11th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense | |||
| William S. White | Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist for the United Feature Syndicate | |||
| Roy Wilkins | Executive Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People | |||
| Whitney Young | Civil Rights Leader & Member of the National Urban League |
Awarded by Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon awarded 28 medals between 1969 and 1974.
| Recipient | Year | Notes | Notable as | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buzz Aldrin | 1969 | WD | Astronaut, Pilot & Apollo 11 Crew Member | |
| Neil Armstrong | WD | Astronaut, Aeronautical Engineer & Apollo 11 Crew Member | ||
| Michael Collins | WD | Astronaut, Pilot & Apollo 11 Crew Member | ||
| Duke Ellington | Jazz Pianist & Composer | |||
| Earl Charles Behrens | 1970 | Political Editor for the San Francisco Chronicle | ||
| Edward T. Folliard | Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist for The Washington Post | |||
| Fred Haise | Astronaut, Pilot & Apollo 13 Crew Member | |||
| William Henry | Journalist & Daily Columnist for the Los Angeles Times | |||
| Arthur Krock | 3x Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist for The New York Times | |||
| David Lawrence | Founder of U.S. News & World Report | |||
| G. Gould Lincoln | Political Reporter for The Washington Evening Star | |||
| Jim Lovell | Astronaut, Pilot & Apollo 8 Crew Member | |||
| Mission Operations Team | ||||
| Raymond Moley | Political Economist, Presidential Advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt & Columnist for Newsweek & National Review | |||
| Eugene Ormandy | Violinist, Conductor & Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra | |||
| Adela Rogers St. Johns | Journalist for Photoplay Magazine | |||
| Jack Swigert | Astronaut, Pilot & Apollo 13 Crew Member | |||
| Manlio Brosio | 1971 | 4th Secretary General of NATO | ||
| Samuel Goldwyn | Film Producer & Founder of Goldwyn Pictures & Samuel Goldwyn Productions | |||
| William J. Hopkins | Executive Clerk of the White House | |||
| John Paul Vann | 1972 | † | Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Army & Member of the United States Agency for International Development | |
| Lila Acheson Wallace | Philanthropist & Co-founder of Reader's Digest | |||
| DeWitt Wallace | Co-founder of Reader's Digest | |||
| John Ford | 1973 | Film Director, Naval Officer & Head of the Photography Unit of the Office of Strategic Services | ||
| William P. Rogers | 63rd United States Attorney General & 55th United States Secretary of State | |||
| Paul G. Hoffman | 1974 | 1st Administrator of the Economic Cooperation Administration & 1st Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme | ||
| Melvin Laird | 10th United States Secretary of Defense & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Charles Lowman | Orthopedic Surgeon & Founder of California's First Orthopedic Hospital |
Awarded by Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford awarded 26 medals between 1974 and 1977.
| Recipient | Year | Notes | Notable as | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| David K. E. Bruce | 1976 | WD | U.S. Ambassador to France, Germany, The United Kingdom, the People's Republic of China & NATO | |
| Martha Graham | WD | Modern Dancer, Choreographer & Inventor of the Graham Technique | ||
| Jesse Owens | Olympic Track and Field Athlete | |||
| Arthur Rubinstein | WD | Classical Pianist | ||
| Iorwith Wilbur Abel | 1977 | 3rd President of the United Steelworkers | ||
| John Bardeen | 2x Nobel Prize Winning Physicist & Engineer | |||
| Irving Berlin | Composer & Songwriter | |||
| Norman Borlaug | Nobel Prize Winning Agronomist & Leader of the Green Revolution | |||
| Omar Bradley | Senior Officer of the United States Army & 1st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff | |||
| Arleigh Burke | Admiral of the United States Navy & Chief of Naval Operations | |||
| Alexander Calder | † | Mobiles Sculptor | ||
| Bruce Catton | Pulitzer Prize Winning Popular Historian of the American Civil War | |||
| Joe DiMaggio | Professional Baseball Player | |||
| Ariel Durant | Pulitzer Prize Winning Researcher & Writer | |||
| Will Durant | Pulitzer Prize Winning Historian & Philosopher | |||
| Arthur Fiedler | Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops Orchestra | |||
| Henry Friendly | Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit | |||
| Lady Bird Johnson | First Lady of the United States | |||
| Henry Kissinger | 56th United States Secretary of State & 7th United States National Security Advisor | |||
| Archibald MacLeish | Modernist Poet, 9th Librarian of Congress & 1st Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs | |||
| James A. Michener | Pulitzer Prize Winning Writer & Philanthropist | |||
| Georgia O'Keeffe | Modernist Artist & Painter | |||
| Nelson Rockefeller | 41st Vice President of the United States & 49th Governor of New York | |||
| Norman Rockwell | Painter & Illustrator | |||
| Donald Rumsfeld | WD | 13th United States Secretary of Defense & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Catherine Filene Shouse | Philanthropist, Member of the Women's Division of the U.S. Employment Service of the Department of Labor & First Woman appointed to the Democratic National Committee | |||
| Lowell Thomas | Writer, Broadcaster & Leading Investor of Capital Cities Television Corporation | |||
| James Watson | Nobel Prize Winning Molecular Biologist & Geneticist who Co-developed the Double Helix Structure Theory for the DNA Molecule |
Awarded by Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter awarded 34 medals between 1977 and 1981.
| Recipient | Year | Notes | Notable as | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Luther King Jr. | 1977 | † | Baptist Minister, Prominent Leader in the Civil Rights Movement & 1st President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference | |
| Jonas Salk | Virologist & Developer of the Polio Vaccine | |||
| Arthur Goldberg | 1978 | 9th United States Secretary of Labor, 6th U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations & Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | ||
| Margaret Mead | 1979 | † | Cultural Anthropologist & President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science | |
| Ansel Adams | 1980 | Landscape Photographer & Environmentalist | ||
| Horace M. Albright | 2nd Director of the National Park Service & Conservationist | |||
| Rachel Carson | † | Marine Biologist, Conservationist & Leader in the Global Environmental Movement | ||
| Lucia Chase | Ballet Director, Dancer & Co-founder of the American Ballet Theatre | |||
| Hubert Humphrey | † | 38th Vice President of the United States & United States Senator from Minnesota | ||
| Iakovos | Primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America & Civil Rights Activist | |||
| Lyndon B. Johnson | † | 36th President of the United States | ||
| Clarence Mitchell Jr. | Civil Rights Activist & Chief Lobbyist and National Director for NAACP | |||
| Roger Tory Peterson | Naturalist, Ornithologist & One of the Founding Inspiration of the Environmental Movement | |||
| Hyman G. Rickover | Admiral in the U.S. Navy & Director of the U.S. Naval Reactors Office | |||
| Beverly Sills | Operatic Soprano | |||
| Robert Penn Warren | Poet, Literary Critic, Co-founder of New Criticism & Charter Member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers | |||
| John Wayne | † | Actor | ||
| Eudora Welty | Pulitzer Prize Winning Novelist & Short Story Writer | |||
| Tennessee Williams | Playwright & Screenwriter | |||
| Roger Nash Baldwin | 1981 | Co-founder and 1st Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union | ||
| Harold Brown | 14th United States Secretary of Defense | |||
| Zbigniew Brzezinski | 9th United States National Security Advisor | |||
| Warren Christopher | 5th United States Deputy Secretary of State & 9th United States Deputy Attorney General | |||
| Walter Cronkite | Broadcast Journalist & Anchorman for CBS Evening News | |||
| Kirk Douglas | Actor & Philanthropist | |||
| Margaret McNamara | Founder of Reading Is Fundamental | |||
| Karl Menninger | Psychiatrist & Co-founder of the Menninger Foundation and Menninger Clinic | |||
| Edmund Muskie | 58th United States Secretary of State & United States Senator from Maine | |||
| Esther Peterson | 2nd Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs & 4th Director of the United States Women's Bureau | |||
| Gerard C. Smith | Chief U.S. Delegate to the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks & 1st U.S. Chairman of the Trilateral Commission | |||
| Robert S. Strauss | 6th United States Trade Representative & United States Special Envoy for the Middle East | |||
| Elbert Tuttle | Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit | |||
| Earl Warren | † | 14th Chief Justice of the United States | ||
| Andrew Young | Executive Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives |
Awarded by Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan awarded 89 medals between 1981 and 1989.
| Recipient | Year | Notes | Notable as | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eubie Blake | 1981 | Jazz Pianist & Composer | ||
| Ella Grasso | † | 83rd Governor of Connecticut & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Bryce Harlow | Counselor to the President | |||
| Walter Judd | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Morris I. Leibman | Civilian Aide-At-Large to the United States Army & Partner at Sidley Austin | |||
| Tex Thornton | Founder of Litton Industries | |||
| Philip Habib | 1982 | 9th Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs & 9th U.S. Ambassador to Korea | ||
| Kate Smith | Classical Contralto | |||
| George Balanchine | 1983 | Ballet Choreographer & Co-founder of the New York City Ballet | ||
| Clare Boothe Luce | U.S. Ambassador to Italy & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Bear Bryant | † | College Football Player & Head Coach of the University of Alabama Football Team | ||
| James Burnham | Political Theorist, Philosopher, Chair of the Philosophy Department at New York University & Leader of the American Conservative Movement | |||
| James E. Cheek | President of Howard University | |||
| Buckminster Fuller | Architect, Systems Theorist, Inventor, Philosopher & Futurist | |||
| Billy Graham | Evangelist, Ordained Southern Baptist Minister & President of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association | |||
| Eric Hoffer | Moral and Social Philosopher | |||
| Jacob Javits | United States Senator from New York & 58th Attorney General of New York | |||
| Dumas Malone | Pulitzer Prize Winning Historian & Biographer | |||
| Mabel Mercer | Cabaret Singer | |||
| Simon Ramo | Engineer considered to be the Father of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile | |||
| Howard Baker | 1984 | United States Senator from Tennessee | ||
| Pierre Baruzy | French Boxer & Manager | |||
| James Cagney | Actor, Dancer & 6th President of the Screen Actors Guild | |||
| Whittaker Chambers | † | Journalist for Time Magazine, Senior Editor at National Review & Key Witness against the Ware Group during the Hiss Case for Perjury | ||
| Leo Cherne | Head of the International Rescue Committee & Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board | |||
| Terence Cooke | † | Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church & Archbishop of New York | ||
| Denton Cooley | Heart and Cardiothoracic Surgeon & Founder and Surgeon-In-Chief of The Texas Heart Institute who performed the first Artificial Heart Implantation | |||
| Tennessee Ernie Ford | Country and Western Singer | |||
| Héctor García | Physician, World War II Veteran, Civil Rights Advocate & Founder of the American GI Forum | |||
| Andrew Goodpaster | United States Army General, Supreme Allied Commander Europe & Commander in Chief of the United States European Command | |||
| Henry M. Jackson | † | United States Senator from Washington & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Lincoln Kirstein | Writer, Impresario, Philanthropist & Co-founder of the New York City Ballet | |||
| Louis L'Amour | Novelist & Short Story Writer | |||
| Joseph Luns | 5th Secretary General of NATO & Minister of Foreign Affairs | |||
| Norman Vincent Peale | Protestant Clergyman, Pastor of Marble Collegiate Church, New York & Author who popularized the concept of Positive Thinking | |||
| Jackie Robinson | † | Professional Baseball Player & Civil Rights Advocate | ||
| Carlos P. Romulo | President of the United Nations General Assembly & Co-founder of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines | |||
| Anwar el-Sadat | † | 3rd President of Egypt | ||
| Eunice Kennedy Shriver | Philanthropist & Founder of the Special Olympics | |||
| Count Basie | 1985 | † | Jazz Pianist, Composer & Bandleader of the Count Basie Orchestra | |
| Albert Coady Wedemeyer | United States Army Commander, General & Member of the War Planning Board which formulated plans for the Invasion of Normandy during World War II | |||
| Jacques Cousteau | French Naval Officer, Oceanographer & Co-Inventor of the Aqua-Lung | |||
| Jerome H. Holland | † | President of Delaware State College, 9th President of Hampton University & U.S. Ambassador to Sweden | ||
| Sidney Hook | Philosopher of the Pragmatist School | |||
| Jeane Kirkpatrick | 16th U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations | |||
| George Low | † | 14th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute & 4th Deputy Administrator of NASA | ||
| Paul Nitze | 12th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense & 58th United States Secretary of the Navy | |||
| Frank Reynolds | † | Television Journalist for CBS and ABC News | ||
| Frank Sinatra | Singer & Actor | |||
| James Stewart | Actor & Brigadier General | |||
| Mother Teresa | Catholic Nun, Humanitarian & Founder of the Missionaries of Charity | |||
| Juan Trippe | † | Commercial Aviation Pioneer, Entrepreneur & Founder of Pan American World Airways | ||
| Albert Wohlstetter | Political Scientist influential to the U.S. Nuclear Strategy during the Cold War | |||
| Roberta Wohlstetter | Historian of American Military Intelligence | |||
| Chuck Yeager | United States Air Force Officer, Flying Ace & Record-Setting Test Pilot who was the First Confirmed Pilot in History to Exceed the Speed of Sound during Flight | |||
| Walter Annenberg | 1986 | Businessman, Philanthropist, Owner of Triangle Publications & U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom | ||
| Earl Blaik | American Football Player & Head Coach at Dartmouth College and the United States Military Academy | |||
| Barry Goldwater | United States Senator from Arizona & United States Air Force Officer | |||
| Helen Hayes | Actress | |||
| Vladimir Horowitz | Classical Pianist & Composer | |||
| Matthew Ridgway | United States Army Senior Officer, Supreme Allied Commander of Europe & 19th Chief of Staff of the United States Army | |||
| Joseph Rochefort | † | Naval Officer & Cryptanalyst for the United States Navy during World War II | ||
| Vermont C. Royster | Editor of The Wall Street Journal | |||
| Albert Sabin | Medical Researcher, President of the Weizmann Institute of Science & Developer of the Oral Polio Vaccine | |||
| An Wang | Computer Engineer, Co-founder of Wang Laboratories & Contributing Developer of the Magnetic-Core Memory | |||
| Anne Armstrong | 1987 | First Female Counselor to the President, U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom & Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board | ||
| Justin Whitlock Dart Sr. | † | President of Dart Industries & Executive Director of Store Industries for Walgreens | ||
| Irving Kaufman | Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit & District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York | |||
| Danny Kaye | † | Actor, Comedian & Singer | ||
| Lyman Lemnitzer | United States Army General, 4th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff & Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO | |||
| John A. McCone | 6th Director of Central Intelligence | |||
| Frederick Patterson | President of Tuskegee University & Founder of the United Negro College Fund | |||
| Nathan Perlmutter | 4th Director of the Anti-Defamation League | |||
| Mstislav Rostropovich | Cellist, Conductor & Human Rights Advocate | |||
| William B. Walsh | Founder of Project HOPE (USA) | |||
| Caspar Weinberger | WD | 15th United States Secretary of Defense & 10th United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare | ||
| Meredith Willson | † | Flutist, Bandleader, Composer, Conductor & Playwright | ||
| Pearl Bailey | 1988 | Broadway Actress & Singer | ||
| Malcolm Baldrige Jr. | † | 25th United States Secretary of Commerce | ||
| Irving Brown | Trade Unionist & Leader of the American Federation of Labor and the AFL-CIO | |||
| Warren E. Burger | 15th Chief Justice of the United States | |||
| Peter Carington | 6th Secretary General of NATO & Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs | |||
| Edward DeBartolo | Businessman & Real-Estate Developer | |||
| Milton Friedman | Economist & Statistician | |||
| Jean MacArthur | Philanthropist | |||
| J. Willard Marriott | † | Entrepreneur & Founder of the Marriott Corporation | ||
| David Packard | Co-founder, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Hewlett-Packard, 13th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense & President of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences | |||
| Roger L. Stevens | Founding Chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts | |||
| Mike Mansfield | 1989 | United States Senator from Montana | ||
| George Shultz | 60th United States Secretary of State |
Awarded by George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush awarded 39 medals between 1989 and 1993.
Awarded by Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton awarded 89 medals between 1993 and 2001.
| Recipient | Year | Notes | Notable as | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arthur Ashe | 1993 | † | Professional Tennis Player | |
| William J. Brennan Jr. | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |||
| Marjory Stoneman Douglas | Journalist, Woman's Suffrage Advocate & Conservationist | |||
| J. William Fulbright | United States Senator from Arkansas | |||
| Thurgood Marshall | † | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States & the Supreme Court's First African-American Justice | ||
| Colin Powell | WD | 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff | ||
| Joseph L. Rauh Jr. | † | Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Lawyer | ||
| Martha Raye | Comic Actress & Singer | |||
| John Minor Wisdom | Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit | |||
| Herbert L. Block | 1994 | Editorial Cartoonist | ||
| Cesar Chavez | † | Labor Leader, Civil Rights Activist & Co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association | ||
| Arthur Sherwood Flemming | 3rd United States Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare | |||
| James P. Grant | Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund | |||
| Dorothy Height | Civil Rights and Women's Rights Activist & President of the National Council of Negro Women | |||
| Barbara Jordan | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Lane Kirkland | Labour Union Leader & President of AFL-CIO | |||
| Robert H. Michel | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Sargent Shriver | 1st Director of the Peace Corps & Founder of the Job Corps, Head Start, VISTA and Upward Bound | |||
| Peggy Charren | 1995 | Founder of Action for Children's Television | ||
| William T. Coleman Jr. | 4th United States Secretary of Transportation | |||
| John Hope Franklin | President of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association and the Southern Historical Association | |||
| Joan Ganz Cooney | Founder of Sesame Workshop | |||
| A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. | Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit | |||
| Frank Minis Johnson | Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit | |||
| C. Everett Koop | 13th Surgeon General of the United States | |||
| Gaylord Nelson | United States Senator from Wisconsin | |||
| Walter Reuther | † | 4th President of the United Automobile Workers | ||
| James Rouse | Founder of The Rouse Company | |||
| Willie Velasquez | † | Founder of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project | ||
| Lew Wasserman | President of MCA Inc. | |||
| Joseph Bernardin | 1996 | Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church & Archbishop of Cincinnati & Chicago | ||
| James Brady | 17th White House Press Secretary | |||
| Millard Fuller | Co-founder and President for Habitat For Humanity International | |||
| David A. Hamburg | President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York | |||
| John H. Johnson | Founder of the Johnson Publishing Company | |||
| Eugene Lang | Founder of REFAC Technology Development Corporation | |||
| Jan Nowak-Jeziorański | Polish Journalist & Writer | |||
| Antonia Pantoja | Founder of ASPIRA & Boricua College | |||
| Rosa Parks | Civil Rights Activist | |||
| Ginetta Sagan | Human Rights Activist | |||
| Mo Udall | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Bob Dole | 1997 | United States Senator from Kansas | ||
| William J. Perry | 19th United States Secretary of Defense | |||
| John Shalikashvili | 13th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff & the Supreme Allied Commander Europe | |||
| Arnold Aronson | 1998 | Founder of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights | ||
| Brooke Astor | Philanthropist & Chairwoman of the Vincent Astor Foundation | |||
| Robert Coles | Child Psychiatrist & Professor at Harvard University | |||
| Justin Dart Jr. | Co-founder of the American Association of People with Disabilities | |||
| James Farmer | 1st National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality | |||
| Dante Fascell | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Zachary Fisher | Philanthropist | |||
| Frances Hesselbein | CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA | |||
| Fred Korematsu | Civil Rights Activist | |||
| Sol Linowitz | Diplomat & Lawyer | |||
| Wilma Mankiller | Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation | |||
| Margaret Murie | Conservationist | |||
| Mario G. Obledo | Civil Rights Leader & 41st President of LULAC | |||
| Elliot Richardson | 69th United States Attorney General | |||
| David Rockefeller | CEO of Chase Manhattan Corporation | |||
| Albert Shanker | † | President of the United Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers | ||
| Elmo Zumwalt | 19th Chief of Naval Operations | |||
| Lloyd Bentsen | 1999 | United States Senator from Texas & 69th United States Secretary of the Treasury | ||
| Edgar Bronfman Sr. | President of the World Jewish Congress | |||
| Jimmy Carter | 39th President of the United States & Humanitarian | |||
| Rosalynn Carter | First Lady of the United States & Humanitarian | |||
| Evelyn Dubrow | Labour Lobbyist for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union | |||
| Isolina Ferré | Roman Catholic Religious Sister & Humanitarian | |||
| Gerald Ford | 38th President of the United States | |||
| Oliver Hill | Civil Rights Attorney | |||
| Max Kampelman | Counselor of the United States Department of State | |||
| Helmut Kohl | Chancellor of Germany | |||
| George J. Mitchell | United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland & United States Senator from Maine | |||
| Edgar Wayburn | Environmentalist & President of the Sierra Club | |||
| James E. Burke | 2000 | CEO of Johnson & Johnson | ||
| John Chafee | † | United States Senator from Rhode Island | ||
| Wesley Clark | Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO | |||
| William J. Crowe | 11th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff & the 29th U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom | |||
| Marian Wright Edelman | Founder and President of the Children's Defense Fund | |||
| John Kenneth Galbraith | 7th U.S. Ambassador to India | |||
| George G. Higgins | Catholic Priest & Labor Activist | |||
| Jesse Jackson | Political Activist & United States Shadow Senator from the District of Columbia | |||
| Mildred Jeffrey | Political and Social Activist | |||
| Mathilde Krim | Founding Chairman of amfAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research | |||
| George McGovern | United States Senator from South Dakota | |||
| Daniel Patrick Moynihan | United States Senator from New York | |||
| Cruz Reynoso | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of California | |||
| Aung San Suu Kyi | General Secretary of the National League for Democracy | |||
| Gardner C. Taylor | Baptist Preacher | |||
| Simon Wiesenthal | Holocaust Survivor & Nazi Hunter |
Awarded by George W. Bush
George W. Bush awarded 83 medals between 2001 and 2009.
| Recipient | Year | Notes | Notable as | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hank Aaron | 2002 | Professional Baseball Player | ||
| Bill Cosby | Stand-Up Comedian & Actor | |||
| Plácido Domingo | Opera Singer & Conductor | |||
| Peter Drucker | Management Consultant & Educator | |||
| Katharine Graham | † | President of The Washington Post | ||
| Donald Henderson | Epidemiologist & Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health | |||
| Irving Kristol | Journalist & Godfather of Neoconservativism | |||
| Nelson Mandela | Anti-Apartheid Activist & President of South Africa | |||
| Gordon Moore | Co-founder and Chairman of Intel Corporation | |||
| Nancy Reagan | First Lady of the United States | |||
| Fred Rogers | Television Host & Presbyterian Minister | |||
| A. M. Rosenthal | Journalist & Executive Editor of The New York Times | |||
| Robert Bartley | 2003 | Editor of the Editorial Page of The Wall Street Journal | ||
| Jacques Barzun | Historian | |||
| Julia Child | Cooking Teacher & Television Personality | |||
| Roberto Clemente | † | Professional Baseball Player | ||
| Van Cliburn | Pianist | |||
| Václav Havel | President of Czechoslovakia & the Czech Republic | |||
| Charlton Heston | Actor & Political Activist | |||
| George Robertson | 10th Secretary General of NATO | |||
| Edward Teller | Theoretical Physicist | |||
| Dave Thomas | † | Founder and CEO of Wendy's | ||
| Byron White | † | Professional Football Player & Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | ||
| James Q. Wilson | Political Scientist | |||
| John Wooden | Basketball Coach | |||
| Paul Bremer | 2004 | Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq | ||
| Edward Brooke | United States Senator from Massachusetts | |||
| Doris Day | Actress, Singer & Activist | |||
| Tommy Franks | Commander of the United States Central Command | |||
| Charlie Daniels | Singer-Songwriter | |||
| Vartan Gregorian | 12th President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York | |||
| Gilbert Melville Grosvenor | President and Chairman of the National Geographic Society | |||
| Gordon B. Hinckley | 15th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | |||
| John Paul II | WD | Pope | ||
| Estée Lauder | Co-founder of the Estée Lauder Companies | |||
| Rita Moreno | Actress, Dancer & Singer | |||
| Arnold Palmer | Professional Golfer | |||
| Arnall Patz | Medical Doctor & Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University | |||
| Norman Podhoretz | Magazine Editor & Writer for Commentary Magazine | |||
| George Tenet | 18th Director of Central Intelligence | |||
| Muhammad Ali | 2005 | Professional Boxer & Human Rights Activist | ||
| Walter Wriston | Chairman and CEO of Citicorp | |||
| Carol Burnett | Actress & Comedian | |||
| Vint Cerf | Co-Developer of the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol | |||
| Robert Conquest | Historian & Poet | |||
| Aretha Franklin | Singer-Songwriter & Pianist | |||
| Alan Greenspan | 13th Chair of the Federal Reserve | |||
| Andy Griffith | Actor & Comedian | |||
| Paul Harvey | Radio Broadcaster for ABC News Radio | |||
| Bob Kahn | Co-Developer of the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol | |||
| Sonny Montgomery | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives & Major General of the Mississippi National Guard | |||
| Richard Myers | 15th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff | |||
| Jack Nicklaus | Professional Golfer | |||
| Frank Robinson | Professional Baseball Player | |||
| Paul Rusesabagina | Rwandan politician & Manager of the Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali during the Rwandan Genocide protecting 1,268 Hutu and Tutsi refugees | |||
| Ruth Johnson Colvin | 2006 | Founder of ProLiteracy Worldwide | ||
| Norman Francis | President of Xavier University of Louisiana | |||
| Paul Johnson | Journalist | |||
| B.B. King | Blues Singer-Songwriter | |||
| Joshua Lederberg | Molecular Biologist | |||
| David McCullough | Popular Historian | |||
| Norman Mineta | 14th United States Secretary of Transportation & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Buck O'Neil | † | Professional Baseball Player | ||
| William Safire | Political Columnist for The New York Times | |||
| Natan Sharansky | Israeli Politician & Human Rights Activist | |||
| Gary Becker | 2007 | Economist | ||
| Óscar Elías Biscet | Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms Advocate in Cuba | |||
| Francis Collins | 2nd Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute | |||
| Benjamin Hooks | Executive Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People | |||
| Henry Hyde | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Brian Lamb | Founder, Executive Chairman and CEO of C-SPAN | |||
| Harper Lee | Novelist & Civil Rights Activist | |||
| Ellen Johnson Sirleaf | 24th President of Liberia | |||
| Ben Carson | 2008 | Neurosurgeon & Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center | ||
| Anthony Fauci | 5th Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases | |||
| Tom Lantos | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Peter Pace | 16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff | |||
| Donna Shalala | 18th United States Secretary of Health and Human Services | |||
| Laurence Silberman | Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit | |||
| Tony Blair | 2009 | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | ||
| Ryan Crocker | United States Ambassador to Lebanon, Kuwait, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan & Iraq | |||
| John Howard | 25th Prime Minister of Australia | |||
| Álvaro Uribe | 31st President of Colombia |
Awarded by Barack Obama
Barack Obama awarded 117 medals between 2009 and 2017.
| Recipient | Year | Notes | Notable as | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nancy Brinker | 2009 | Founder of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation | ||
| Joe Medicine Crow | War Chief of the Crow Nation | |||
| Pedro José Greer | Physician & Founding Dean for the Roseman University Health Sciences College of Medicine | |||
| Stephen Hawking | Theoretical Physicist | |||
| Jack Kemp | † | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Ted Kennedy | United States Senator from Massachusetts | |||
| Billie Jean King | Professional Tennis Player | |||
| Joseph Lowery | Co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference | |||
| Harvey Milk | † | Member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors & Gay Rights Activist | ||
| Sandra Day O'Connor | Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court | |||
| Sidney Poitier | Actor & First African-American & Bahamian to Win an Academy Award | |||
| Chita Rivera | Actress, Singer & Dancer | |||
| Mary Robinson | 7th President of Ireland | |||
| Janet Rowley | Geneticist & First Scientist to Identify a Chromosomal Translocation as the Cause of Leukemia and other Cancers. | |||
| Desmond Tutu | Anglican Bishop, Theologian & Human Rights Activist | |||
| Muhammad Yunus | Founder of Grameen Bank | |||
| John H. Adams | 2011 | Founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council | ||
| Maya Angelou | Poet & Civil Rights Activist | |||
| Warren Buffett | Philanthropist & CEO of Berkshire Hathaway | |||
| George H. W. Bush | 41st President of the United States | |||
| Robert Gates | 22nd United States Secretary of Defense | |||
| Jasper Johns | Abstract Expressionist Painter & Printmaker | |||
| John Lewis | Civil Rights Activist & Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Tom Little | † | Optometrist & Leader of an International Assistance Mission killed during the 2010 Badakhshan Massacre | ||
| Yo-Yo Ma | Cellist & United Nations Messenger of Peace | |||
| Sylvia Mendez | Civil Rights Activist | |||
| Angela Merkel | Chancellor of Germany | |||
| Stan Musial | Professional Baseball Player | |||
| Bill Russell | Professional Basketball Player | |||
| Jean Kennedy Smith | United States Ambassador to Ireland | |||
| John J. Sweeney | President of AFL-CIO & Labor Leader | |||
| Gerda Weissmann Klein | Author, Human Rights Activist & Holocaust Educator | |||
| Madeleine Albright | 2012 | 64th United States Secretary of State | ||
| Bob Dylan | Singer-Songwriter | |||
| William Foege | 10th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | |||
| John Glenn | Astronaut and United States Senator from Ohio | |||
| Juliette Gordon Low | † | Founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA | ||
| Gordon Hirabayashi | † | Sociologist, Civil Rights Activist & Plaintiff in Hirabayashi v. United States | ||
| Dolores Huerta | Labor Leader & Co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association | |||
| Jan Karski | † | Resistance-Fighter during WWII & Diplomat | ||
| Toni Morrison | Novelist & Civil Rights Activist | |||
| Shimon Peres | 9th President of Israel | |||
| John Paul Stevens | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | |||
| Pat Summitt | Women's College Basketball Head Coach | |||
| Patricia Wald | Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit | |||
| Ernie Banks | 2013 | Professional Baseball Player | ||
| Ben Bradlee | Executive Editor of The Washington Post | |||
| Bill Clinton | 42nd President of the United States | |||
| John Doar | Lawyer & Lead Special Counsel for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee's Impeachment Inquiry Staff during the Impeachment Process Against Richard Nixon |
|||
| Daniel Inouye | † | United States Senator from Hawaii | ||
| Daniel Kahneman | Psychologist & Economist | |||
| Richard Lugar | United States Senator from Indiana | |||
| Loretta Lynn | Singer-Songwriter | |||
| Mario J. Molina | Chemist who discovered the Antarctic Ozone Hole | |||
| Sally Ride | † | Astronaut & Physicist | ||
| Bayard Rustin | † | Human Rights Activist | ||
| Arturo Sandoval | Jazz Trumpeter, Pianist & Composer | |||
| Dean Smith | Men's College Basketball Head Coach | |||
| Gloria Steinem | Journalist & Social Political Activist | |||
| C. T. Vivian | Minister & Civil Rights Activist | |||
| Oprah Winfrey | Talk Show Host, Actress & Philanthropist | |||
| Alvin Ailey | 2014 | † | Dancer & Founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater | |
| Isabel Allende | Author | |||
| Tom Brokaw | Network Television Journalist | |||
| James Chaney | † | Civil Rights Activist | ||
| John Dingell | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Mildred Dresselhaus | Nanotechnologist & Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |||
| Andrew Goodman | † | Civil Rights Activist | ||
| Ethel Kennedy | Human Rights Activist & Founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights | |||
| Abner Mikva | Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit | |||
| Patsy Mink | † | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Edward Roybal | † | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Michael Schwerner | † | Civil Rights Activist | ||
| Suzan Shown Harjo | President of the National Council of American Indians | |||
| Charlie Sifford | Professional Golfer & the First African-American to play on the PGA Tour | |||
| Robert Solow | Economist & Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |||
| Meryl Streep | Actress | |||
| Marlo Thomas | Actress, Producer & Social Activist | |||
| Stevie Wonder | Singer-Songwriter | |||
| Steven Spielberg | 2015 | Director, Producer & Screenwriter | ||
| Emilio Estefan | Musician & Producer | |||
| Gloria Estefan | Singer & Actress | |||
| Itzhak Perlman | Violinist & Conductor | |||
| Stephen Sondheim | Composer & Lyricist of Musical Theater | |||
| Barbra Streisand | Singer & Actress | |||
| James Taylor | Singer-Songwriter | |||
| Minoru Yasui | † | Lawyer & Plaintiff in Yasui v. United States | ||
| Billy Frank Jr. | † | Environmental Leader & Treaty Rights Activist | ||
| Shirley Chisholm | † | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives & First African-American Woman Elected to Congress | ||
| Lee H. Hamilton | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Barbara Mikulski | United States Senator from Maryland | |||
| William Ruckelshaus | 1st & 5th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency | |||
| Katherine Johnson | Mathematician whose calculations helped with the First successful U.S. Crewed Spaceflight | |||
| Yogi Berra | † | Professional Baseball Player | ||
| Bonnie Carroll | Founder and President of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors | |||
| Willie Mays | Professional Baseball Player | |||
| Frank Gehry | 2016 | Architect | ||
| Richard Garwin | Physicist & Author of the First Hydrogen Bomb Design | |||
| Maya Lin | Designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. | |||
| Robert Redford | Actor & Filmmaker | |||
| Robert De Niro | Actor & Producer | |||
| Tom Hanks | Actor | |||
| Cicely Tyson | Actress | |||
| Diana Ross | Singer & Actress | |||
| Bruce Springsteen | Singer-Songwriter | |||
| Grace Hopper | † | Computer Scientist & Developer of the FLOW-MATIC programming language | ||
| Margaret Hamilton | Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory | |||
| Eduardo J. Padrón | President of Miami Dade College | |||
| Newton N. Minow | Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission | |||
| Lorne Michaels | Comedian & Film and Television Producer | |||
| Ellen DeGeneres | Comedian, Television Host & Gay Rights Activist | |||
| Bill Gates | Philanthropist & Co-founder of Microsoft | |||
| Melinda French Gates | Philanthropist & Co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation | |||
| Elouise P. Cobell | † | Tribal Elder, Activist & Lead Plaintiff in Cobell v. Salazar | ||
| Vin Scully | Sportscaster | |||
| Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | Basketball Player | |||
| Michael Jordan | Olympic Basketball Player | |||
| Joe Biden | 2017 | WD | 47th Vice President of the United States |
Awarded by Donald Trump
Donald Trump awarded 24 medals between 2017 and 2021.
| Recipient | Year | Notes | Notable as | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miriam Adelson | 2018 | Publisher of the Israel Hayom, Physician & Political Donor | ||
| Orrin Hatch | United States Senator from Utah | |||
| Alan Page | Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court and Football Player | |||
| Elvis Presley | † | Singer & Actor | ||
| Babe Ruth | † | Professional Baseball Player | ||
| Antonin Scalia | † | Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States | ||
| Roger Staubach | Professional Football Player | |||
| Bob Cousy | 2019 | Professional Basketball Player | ||
| Arthur Laffer | Political Economist | |||
| Edwin Meese | 75th United States Attorney General | |||
| Roger Penske | Professional Auto Racing Team Owner, Driver, & Businessman | |||
| Mariano Rivera | Professional Baseball Player | |||
| Jerry West | Basketball Executive & Olympic Professional Basketball Player | |||
| Tiger Woods | Professional Golfer | |||
| Dan Gable | 2020 | Olympic Wrestler | ||
| Lou Holtz | Professional Football Coach | |||
| Jack Keane | Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army | |||
| Rush Limbaugh | Political Commentator | |||
| Jim Ryun | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Olympic athlete | |||
| Babe Didrikson Zaharias | 2021 | † | Olympic Athlete | |
| Devin Nunes | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Jim Jordan | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives | |||
| Gary Player | Professional Golfer | |||
| Annika Sörenstam | Professional Golfer |
Awarded by Joe Biden
Joe Biden has awarded 36 medals since 2022.
| Recipient | Year | Notes | Notable as | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simone Biles | 2022 | Olympic Gymnast & Human Rights Activist | ||
| Simone Campbell | Roman Catholic Religious Sister & Member of the Sisters of Social Service | |||
| Julieta García | President of Texas Southmost College | |||
| Gabrielle Giffords | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives & Gun Control Activist | |||
| Fred Gray | Civil Rights Attorney & President of the Alabama State Bar | |||
| Steve Jobs | † | Entrepreneur & Co-founder and CEO of Apple | ||
| Alexander Karloutsos | Protopresbyter in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America | |||
| Khizr Khan | Member of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom & Activist | |||
| Sandra Lindsay | Critical Care Nurse & First American to receive the COVID-19 Vaccine | |||
| John McCain | † | United States Senator from Arizona & Purple Heart Recipient | ||
| Diane Nash | Civil Rights Activist & Co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee | |||
| Megan Rapinoe | Olympic Professional Soccer Player & Human Rights Activist | |||
| Alan Simpson | United States Senator from Wyoming | |||
| Richard Trumka | † | President of the United Mine Workers & Secretary-General of the AFL-CIO | ||
| Wilma Vaught | Brigadier General | |||
| Denzel Washington | Actor, Producer & National Spokesperson for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America | |||
| Raul Yzaguirre | U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic & President and CEO of the National Council of La Raza | |||
| Michael Bloomberg | 2024 | Entrepreneur, philanthropist and three-term Mayor of New York City | ||
| Greg Boyle | Jesuit Catholic priest and founder and director of the rehabilitation program Homeboy Industries | |||
| Jim Clyburn | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives and former House Majority Whip | |||
| Elizabeth Dole | United States Senator from North Carolina from 2003 to 2009, Transportation Secretary, and Labor Secretary | |||
| Phil Donahue | Former daytime talk show host | |||
| Medgar Evers | † | Famed Civil rights activist who was murdered at age 37 in 1963 | ||
| Al Gore | 45th Vice President of the United States and environmentalist | |||
| Clarence B. Jones | Civil rights activist | |||
| John Kerry | 1st United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, 68th United States Secretary of State and United States Senator from Massachusetts from 1985 to 2013. | |||
| Frank Lautenberg | † | United States Senator from New Jersey | ||
| Katie Ledecky | Winner of seven Olympic gold medals and 21 world championship gold medals | |||
| Opal Lee | Educator and activist who pushed to make Juneteenth a national holiday | |||
| Ellen Ochoa | Astronaut and second female director of NASA's Johnson Space Center | |||
| Nancy Pelosi | 52nd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives | |||
| Jane Rigby | Chief scientist of the James Webb Space Telescope | |||
| Teresa Romero | President of the United Farm Workers union | |||
| Judy Shepard | Co-founder of the Matthew Shepard Foundation | |||
| Jim Thorpe | † | First Native American to win an Olympic gold medal | ||
| Michelle Yeoh | First Asian actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actress |
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List of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.