Today, Spokane’s Steve Gleason joins an elite group of military heroes, explorers, civil rights figures and scientific figures who have received the Congressional Gold Medal.
What’s the difference between the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded by the president. The Congressional Gold Medal is awarded by Congress and requires legislation.
How does one get nominated?
Two-thirds of both the House (meaning 290 members) and the Senate (meaning 67 members) have to agree to co-sponsor a bill nominating someone for a gold medal before the appropriate committees — the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Policy and Technology and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs — consider it.
Why are some people shown on this list twice?
You can be awarded the medal more than once. Three have won it twice and one — Zachary Taylor, who later became president — won it three times. Once, a lost medal was re-awarded.
What does the Congressional Gold Medal look like?
Each one is designed by the U.S. Mint to bear the likeness of the person receiving the award. So each one is different. Unlike the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal isn’t really designed to be worn.
Are the medals really gold?
Evidently. The office of the historian of the U.S. House notes that because 650 members of the U.S. Summer Olympic team were to receive medals in 1980, Congress had bronze medals made instead that were then plated in gold.
CONTINETAL CONGRESS
March 25, 1776
Gen. George Washington
Nov. 4, 1777
Gen. Horatio Gates
July 26, 1779
Gen. Anthony Wayne
Sept. 24, 1779
Major Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee
March 9, 1781
Gen. Daniel Morgan
Oct. 29, 1781
Gen. Nathanael Greene
Oct. 16, 1787
Capt. John Paul Jones
U.S. CONGRESS
March 29, 1800
Capt. Thomas Truxtun
March 3, 1805
Commander Edward Preble
Jan. 29, 1813
Capt. Isaac Hull, Capt. Stephen Decatur and Capt. Jacob Jones
March 3, 1813
Capt. William Bainbridge
Jan. 6, 1814
Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry and Capt. Jesse D. Elliott
Jan. 6, 1814
Lt. William Burrows and Lt. Edward R. McCall
Jan. 11, 1814
Capt. James Lawrence
Oct. 20, 1814
Capt. Thomas MacDonough, Capt. Robert Henly and Lt. Stephen Cassin
Oct. 21, 1814
Capt. Lewis Warrington
Nov. 3, 1814
Capt. Johnson Blakely
Nov. 3, 1814
Gen. Jacob Brown
Nov. 3, 1814
Gen. Winfield Scott
Nov. 3, 1814
Gen. Eleazar W. Ripley, Gen. James Miller and Gen. Peter B. Porter
Nov. 3, 1814
Gen. Edmund P. Gaines
Nov. 3, 1814
Gen. Alexander Macomb
Feb. 27, 1815
Gen. Andrew Jackson
Feb. 22, 1816
Capt. Charles Stewart
Feb. 22, 1816
Capt. James Biddle
April 4, 1818
Gen. William Henry Harrison and Kentucky Gov. Isaac Shelby
Feb. 13, 1835
Col. George Croghan
July 16, 1846
Gen. Zachary Taylor
March 2, 1847
Gen. Zachary Taylor
March 3, 1847
Rescuers of the crew of the U.S. Brig Somers
March 9, 1848
Gen. Winfield Scott
May 9, 1848
Gen. Zachary Taylor
Aug. 4, 1854
Cdr. Duncan N. Ingraham
May 11, 1858
Dr. Frederick A. Rose — yellow fever treatment. First non-military gold medal recipient.
Dec. 17, 1863
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
Jan. 28, 1864
Cornelius Vanderbilt — philanthropist
July 26, 1866
Capt. Robert Creighton, Capt. Edwin J. Low and Capt. George C. Stouffer — rescuers
March 2, 1867
Cyrus W. Field — transatlantic telegraph cable
March 16, 1867
George Peabody — philanthropist
March 1, 1871
Major George F. Robinson — bodyguard duty for secretary of state
Feb. 24, 1873
Capt. Jared S. Crandall and others — rescuers
June 20, 1874
John Horn, Jr. — rescuer
Feb. 5, 1883
John F. Slater — philanthropist
Aug. 27, 1888
Joseph Francis — inventor
Sept. 30, 1890
George Wallace Melville and others — Arctic explorers
May 3, 1900
Lt. Frank H. Newcomb
June 28, 1902
Lt. David H. Jarvis, Lt. Ellsworth P. Bertholf and Dr. Samuel J. Call - lifesaving expedition
April 28, 1904
John Horn, Jr. — lost medal
March 4, 1909
Wright Brothers — inventors of the airplane
July 6, 1912
Capt. Arthur Henry Rostron — Titanic rescue
March 19, 1914
Capt. Paul H. Kreibohm and others — rescue
March 4, 1915
Domicio da Gama, Romulo S. Naon and Eduardo Suarez — diplomats
May 4, 1928
Charles A. Lindbergh — solo transAtlantic flight
May 29, 1928
Lincoln Ellsworth, Roald Amundsen, and Umberto Nobile — polar explorers
May 29, 1928
Thomas A. Edison — inventor
Feb. 9, 1929
Members of the NC-4 mission — first successful transatlantic flight in 1919
Feb. 28, 1929
Maj. Walter Reed and associates — yellow Fever work in Cuba
May 23, 1930
Officers and men of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition
June 16, 1936
Lincoln Ellsworth — Antarctic explorer
June 29, 1936
George M. Cohan — musician
June 20, 1938
Margaret Aldrich and Anna Bouligny — medical work in Puerto Rico
Aug. 7, 1939
Howard Hughes — aviation technology
Aug. 10, 1939
Reverend Francis X. Quinn — hostage crisis
June 15, 1940
William Sinnott — bodyguard duty for Franklin Roosevelt
Jan. 20, 1942
Roland Boucher — lifesaver
March 22, 1946
General of the Army George C. Marshall and Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King
Aug. 7, 1946
John J. Pershing, General of the Armies of the United States
Aug. 8, 1946
Gen. William Mitchell — promotion of military aviation
Aug. 12, 1949
Vice President Alben W. Barkley
July 16, 1954
Irving Berlin — musician
Aug. 9, 1955
E. Salk — work with polio
July 18, 1956
Surviving veterans of the American Civil War
Aug. 28, 1958
Adm. Hyman Rickover — work with nuclear fleet
Sept. 16, 1959
Dr. Robert H. Goddard — work with rockets
Sept. 13, 1960
Robert Frost — poet
May 27, 1961
Thomas Anthony Dooley III — medical work in Laos
June 8, 1962
Bob Hope — entertainer
Sept. 26, 1962
Rep. Sam Rayburn — Speaker of the House of Representatives
Oct. 9, 1962
Douglas MacArthur, General of the Army
May 24, 1968
Walt Disney — entertainer
May 7, 1969
Winston Churchill — British prime minister
May 14, 1973
Roberto Clemente — baseball player/humanitarian work
March 8, 1977
Marian Anderson — singer
Oct. 10, 1978
Gen. Ira C. Eaker — U.S. Air Force
Nov. 1, 1978
Sen. Robert F. Kennedy
May 26, 1979
John Wayne — entertainer
June 13, 1979
Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman — crossing the Atlantic in a balloon
June 13, 1979
Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey
Dec. 12, 1979
American Red Cross
March 6, 1980
Ambassador Kenneth Taylor — helping rescue U.S. diplomatic staff from Iran
March 17, 1980
Simon Wiesenthal — war criminal investigator
July 8, 1980
U.S. Summer Olympic Team — boycott of Moscow games
March 22, 1982
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
June 23, 1982
Adm. Hyman Rickover
Aug. 26, 1982
Fred Waring — inventor
Aug. 26, 1982
Joe Louis — boxer
Aug. 26, 1982
Louis L'Amour — author
Nov. 18, 1983
Rep. Leo J. Ryan — murdered in Guyana
Nov. 29, 1983
Danny Thomas — entertainer/humanitarian work
May 8, 1984
President Harry S. Truman
May 8, 1984
Lady Bird Johnson — conservation and beautification work
May 8, 1984
Elie Wiesel — historian
May 17, 1984
Roy Wilkins — civil rights
Aug. 9, 1985
George and Ira Gershwin — songwriters
May 13, 1986
Anatoly and Avital Shcharansky — human rights
May 20, 1986
Harry Chapin — musician/humanitarian work
Sept. 23, 1986
Aaron Copland — composer
Dec. 24, 1987
Mary Lasker — medical research
Sept. 20, 1988
Jesse Owens — athlete, humanitarian work
Nov. 9, 1988
Andrew Wyeth — artist
May 17, 1990
Laurence Spelman Rockefeller — environmental work, historical preservation
Nov. 5, 1990
Gen. Matthew Ridgeway
April 23, 1991
Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf — Gulf War
April 23, 1991
Gen. Colin Powell — Gulf War
Nov. 2, 1994
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson — humanitarian work
Feb. 13, 1996
Ruth and Billy Graham
May 14, 1997
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra — musician, humanitarian work
June 2, 1997
Mother Teresa of Calcutta — humanitarian work
Oct. 6, 1997
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew — religious work
July 29, 1998
Nelson Mandela of South Africa
Oct. 21, 1998
Little Rock Nine — Civil rights
Oct. 21, 1998
President Gerald R. and first lady Betty Ford
May 4, 1999
Rosa Parks— Civil rights
Dec. 9, 1999
Theodore M. Hesburgh — Civil rights
March 3, 2000
John Cardinal O'Connor— humanitarian work
June 20, 2000
Charles M. Schulz — cartoonist
July 27, 2000
Pope John Paul II
July 27, 2000
President Ronald and First Lady Nancy Reagan
Dec. 21, 2000
Navajo code talkers of World War II
Jan. 16, 2002
Gen, Hugh Shelton
July 17, 2003
British Prime Minister Tony Blair
Oct. 23, 2003
Jackie Robinson — baseball/civil rights
Dec. 6, 2003
Dr. Dorothy Height — civil rights
Dec. 15, 2003
Rev. Joseph A. DeLaine, Harry and Eliza Briggs and Levi Pearson — civil rights
Oct. 25, 2004
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King
April 11, 2006
The Tuskegee Airmen of World War II — civil rights
Sept. 27, 2006
The Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso,
Oct. 16, 2006
Byron Nelson — pro golfer/humanitarian work
Dec. 14, 2006
Dr. Norman E. Borlaug — environmental work
Oct. 10, 2007
Dr. Michael E. DeBakey — inventor of the M.A.S.H. unit
May 6, 2008
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar
July 1, 2008
Constantino Brumidi — painter of U.S. Capitol frescoes
July 1, 2008
Sen. Edward William Brooke III
Oct. 15, 2008
Native American Code Talkers of World War II
July 1, 2009
Women Airforce Service Pilots ("WASP") of World War II
Aug. 7, 2009
Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr., Michael Collins, and John Glenn, Jr.
Sept. 30, 2009
Arnold Palmer — professional golfer
Oct. 5, 2010
Dr. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh
Oct. 5, 2010
100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service — World War II
Nov. 11, 2011
Montford Point Marines — civil rights
Dec. 23, 2011
"The Men and Women who perished as the result of the Terrorist Acts on the United States" on 9/11
July 26, 2012
Raoul Wallenberg — humanitarian work during the Holocaust
May 24, 2013
Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley — victims of the 16th Steet Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham in 1963
July 12, 2013
The First Special Service Force — World War II
May 23, 2014
American fighter aces of World War II
May 23, 2014
The "Doolittle Tokyo Raiders" of World War II
May 30, 2014
World War II members of the Civil Air Patrol
June 9, 2014
Israeli President Shimon Peres
June 9, 2014
"The Monuments Men" of World War II
June 10, 2014
65th Infantry Regiment — "the Borinqueneers" of the Korean War
Dec. 16, 2014
Jack Nicklaus — professional golfer
March 7, 2015
Participants in the Selma-to-Montgomery, Ala. civil rights march of March 1965
Dec. 14, 2016
Filipino Veterans of World War II
Dec. 14, 2016
Office of Strategic Services — World War II
Sept. 15, 2017
Sen. Bob Dole
Dec. 13, 2018
Former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
Dec. 17, 2018
Larry Doby — baseball player/civil rights
Dec. 20, 2018
Chinese-American Veterans of World War II
Dec. 20, 2018
The crew of the USS Indianapolis of World War II
Nov. 8, 2019
Katherine Johnson — NASA mathematician
Nov. 8, 2019
Dr. Christine Darden — NASA engineer
Nov. 8, 2019
Dorothy Vaughan — NASA mathematician
Nov. 8, 2019
Mary Jackson — NASA mathematician
Nov. 8, 2019
"All the women who contributed to the success of NASA during the Space Race."
Jan. 15, 2020
Steve Gleason of Spokane — NFL player/humanitarian work with ALS