President Abraham Lincoln signed into law a
measure calling for the awarding of a U.S. Army
Medal of Honor, in the name of Congress, “to
such noncommissioned officers and privates
as shall most distinguish themselves by their
gallantry in action, and other soldier-like qualities
during the present insurrection.” The previous
December, Lincoln had approved a provision
creating a U.S. Navy Medal of Valor, which was
the basis of the Army Medal of Honor created by
Congress in July 1862.

The first U.S. Army soldiers to receive what would
become the nation’s highest military honor were
six members of a Union raiding party who in 1862
penetrated Confederate territory to destroy bridges, 
and railroad tracks between Chattanooga, Tennessee, 
and Atlanta, Georgia.

John Wayne (Marion Robert Morrison)
(May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979)

Film actor John Wayne, famous for starring in countless westerns,
died at age 72 after battling cancer for more than a decade. The
American Film Institute selected Wayne as one of the greatest male
stars of classic American cinema. 

(AP) – After five years of sniffing out land mines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia, Magawa (above) is retiring.

The African giant pouched rat has been the most successful rodent
trained and overseen by a Belgian nonprofit, APOPO, to find land
mines and alert his human handlers so the explosives can be
can be safely removed.

On June 3, 1965, 120 miles above the Earth, Major Edward H. White
II opened the hatch of the Gemini 4 and stepped out of the capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to walk in space (above). He
was attached to the craft by a 25-foot tether and controlling his movements with  a hand-held oxygen jet-propulsion gun, White
remained outside the capsule for just over 20 minutes. As a space
walker,
White had been preceded by Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei A. Leonov,
who on March 18, 1965, was the first man ever to walk in space.

Edward Higgins White II
(November 14, 1930 – January 27, 1967)

White died on January 27, 1967, alongside astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Roger B. Chaffee in a fire during pre-launch testing
for Apollo 1 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. He was awarded the
NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his flight in Gemini 4
and posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of
Honor

Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford in “The Rifleman” on
ABC TV from September 30, 1958 to April 8, 1963. 

John Ernest Crawford (March 26, 1946 – April 29, 2021)

Johnny Crawford was an actor, singer, and musician. He first
performed before a national audience as a Mouseketeer. At age
12, Crawford rose to prominence playing Mark McCain in the
ABC Western series The Rifleman, which he was nominated for
an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor at age 13 for his
work om the show.

Crawford had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2019.