From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Herschel Glenn Jr. was
successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7
spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut.
Glenn, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was
among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration in 1959 to become America’s
first astronauts.
President John F. Kennedy on the phone.
John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016)