Presidential Medal of Freedom

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Mario Molina receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Paul Harvey receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom

David McCullough and George W. Bush

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Presidential Medal of Freedom: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Notable Honorees

Steven Spielberg • Joe Biden • Francis • Bruce Springsteen • Bob Dylan • Hillary Clinton • Bill Clinton • Angela Merkel • John McCain • Muhammad Ali • Steve Jobs • Tiger Woods • Lionel Messi • Toni Morrison • Meryl Streep • Bill Russell • Robert De Niro • Sidney Poitier • Betty Ford • Simone Biles • Denzel Washington • Rosalynn Carter • Katie Ledecky • José Andrés • John Wayne • Maya Angelou • Tom Hanks • Irving Kristol • I.M. Pei • Bill Gates • Isabel Allende • John Lewis • Ben Carson • Frank Gehry • Oprah Winfrey • Barbra Streisand • Michelle Yeoh • Anthony Fauci • Bob Hope • Oliver Hill • Eubie Blake • Megan Rapinoe • George Soros • Jens Stoltenberg • Maya Lin • Jesse Jackson • Diane Nash • Ethel Kennedy • James Stewart • Margaret Mead • Sally Ride • Orrin Hatch • Norman Mineta • Stephen Sondheim • Barbara Mikulski • Aretha Franklin • Robert M. Gates • Audrey Hepburn • Muhammad Yunus • Bono • Danny Kaye • Neil Armstrong • Rita Moreno • Gabby Giffords • John Glenn • Michael Jordan • Rush Limbaugh • George Mitchell • Magic Johnson • John Paul Stevens • Anna Wintour • Yo-Yo Ma • Julia Child • Bayard Rustin • Madeleine Albright • Warren Buffett • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar • Billie Jean King • Ralph Lauren • Charlton Heston • Arthur Laffer • Jesse Owens • Norman Ernest Borlaug • Jack Kemp • Melinda Gates • Margaret Murie • Elie Wiesel • Babe Didrikson Zaharias • Desmond Tutu • Ellen DeGeneres • Phil Donahue • George Shultz • Mary Robinson • Dean Smith • Harper Lee • Yogi Berra • Robert Kahn • Plácido Domingo • Ted Kennedy • Helen Hayes • Willie Mays • Ellen Ochoa • Katherine Johnson • Cecile Richards • Pat Summitt • David Brinkley • Cicely Tyson • Margaret Chase Smith • Norman Vincent Peale • Donna Shalala • Arnold Palmer • Gordon B. Hinckley • Harvey Milk • Sister Simone Campbell • Daniel Inouye • Shirley Chisholm • James Baker • David McCullough • Stan Musial • Jasper Johns • Mariano Rivera • Jane Goodall • Tom Brokaw • Sylvia Mendez • Fred Rogers • Andrew Wyeth • Dolores Huerta • Gloria Steinem • Chita Rivera • Hank Aaron • Daniel Kahneman • Jonas Salk • Grace Hopper • Stephen Hawking • Eudora Welty • Diana Ross • Marian Wright Edelman • Edward Brooke • Michael DeBakey • Lane Kirkland • Alan Page • Annika Sörenstam • Margaret Hamilton • Clare Boothe Luce • Fannie Lou Hamer • Bob Dole • Edmund Muskie • Johnny Carson • Ernie Banks • Michael J. Fox • Henry M. Jackson • Jacques Barzun • Cesar Chavez • Robert Michel • Denton Cooley • Eric Hoffer • Philip Charles Habib • Daniel Patrick Moynihan • Pearl Bailey • Theodore Hesburgh • James Taylor • Wilma Mankiller • Dorothy Height • Dan Gable • Mario Molina • R. Sargent Shriver • Juliette Gordon Low • Benjamin L. Hooks • John Sweeney • Gary S. Becker • Loretta Lynn • Ben Bradlee • Suzan Shown Harjo • Melvin Laird • Buck O’Neil • Red Blaik • Andy Griffith • David Packard • Mstislav Rostropovich • Eunice Kennedy Shriver • Bob Cousy • Gary Player • Claude Pepper • Martha Raye • Edgar Mitchell • Robert Solow • Lorne Michaels • Lyman Lemnitzer • Esther Peterson • Frederick Douglass Patterson • Mathilde Krim • Roger Staubach • John H. Johnson • James Farmer • Kelly Johnson • William Safire • Louis L’Amour • Justin Dart, Jr. • Herblock

Photos

Mario Molina receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Paul Harvey receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom

David McCullough and George W. Bush

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Topics

United States Templeton Prize Spingarn Medal Medal for Merit Padma Awards Bharat Ratna Peabody Award George Cross Order of Lenin

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