Congressional Gold Medal of Honor

The first award is the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor - more commonly known as the Congressional Gold Medal - the nation’s highest and most distinguished civilian award. First awarded in 1776 to General George Washington, there have been over one hundred medals awarded. There have been two two-time winners - Major General Winfield Scott (1814, 1848) and John Horn, Jr (1874, 1904). Major General Zachary Taylor was awarded this special distinction three times: in 1846, 1847, and 1848.The medal has been awarded to individuals and groups from all walks of life.

It was originally awarded to military leaders for achievement in battle, but became a civilian medal after the Medal of Honor was instituted. The medal is presented both for singular acts of exceptional service and for lifetime achievement. Congressional legislation is required to make the medal, and needs at least two-thirds of the House of Representatives to sponsor the legislation to the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, Technology, and Economic Growth and 67 Senators to sponsor it to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Once the legislation is past, the Congress commissions the U.S Mint to design and create the medal. This ensures that each medal is unique, representing each individual and/or event that it has been awarded for. The legislation provides for duplicate copies of the medal to be cast in bronze for sale, on occasion.

List of Recipients:

George Washington (1776)

Horatio Gates (1777)

Anthony Wayne (1779)

Henry Lee (1779)

 

Daniel Morgan (1781)

Nathaniel Greene (1781)

John Paul Jones (1787)

Thomas Truxton (1800)

 

Edward Preble (1805)

Isaac Hull (1813)

Stephen Decatur (1813)

Jacob Jones (1813)

 

William Bainbridge (1813)

Oliver Hazard Perry (1814)

Jesse D. Elliott (1814)

William Burrows (1814) *

 

Edward R. McCall (1814)

James Lawrence (1814) *

Thomas Macdonough (1814)

Robert Henley (1814)

 

Stephen Cassin (1814)

Lewis Warrington (1814)

Johnston Blakely (1814) *

Jacob Brown (1814)

 

Winfield Scott (1814)

Eleazar W. Ripley (1814)

James Miller (1814)

Peter B. Porter (1814)

 

Edmund P. Gaines (1814)

Alexander Macomb (1814)

Andrew Jackson (1815)

Charles Stewart (1816)

 

James Biddle (1816)

William Henry Harrison (1818)

Isaac Shelby (1818)

George Croghan (1835)

 

Zachary Taylor (1846)

Zachary Taylor (1847)

George R. Lambert (1847)

Mr. Anthony (1847)

 

Midshipman Fox (1847)

Lieutenant Petit (1847)

First Lieutenant Tarleton (1847)

Charles Frankland (1847)

 

Henry Matson (1847)

Louis F. Dubut (1847)

Captain de Labedoyere (1847)

Manuel de la Puente (1847)

 

Winfield Scott (1848)

Zachary Taylor (1848)

Duncan N. Ingraham (1854)

Frederick H. Rose (1858)

 

Ulysses S. Grant (1863)

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1864)

Robert Creighton (1866)

Edwin Low (1866)

 

George C. Stouffer (1866)

Cyrus W. Field (1867)

George Peabody (1867)

George F. Robinson (1871)

 

Jared S. Crandall (1873)

Albert Crandall (1873)

Daniel F. Larkin (1873)

Frank Larkin (1873)

 

Byron Green (1873)

John D. Harvey (1873)

Courtland Gavitt (1873)

Eugene Nash (1873)

 

Edwin Nash (1873)

William Nash (1873)

John Horn, Jr. (1874)

John F. Slater (1883)

 

Joseph Francis (1888)

George Washington De Long (1890) *

Charles W. Chipp (1890) *

George Wallace Melville (1890)

 

John W. Danenhower (1890) *

James M. Ambler (1890) *

Raymond Lee Newcomb (1890)

William Dunbar (1890) *

 

Jerome James Collins (1890) *

Frank H. Newcomb (1900)

David H. Jarvis
(1902)

Ellsworth P. Bertholf

 

(1902)

Samuel J. Call (1902)

Orville Wright (1909)

Wilbur Wright (1909)

 

Arthur Henry Rostron (1912)

Paul H. Kreibohm (1914)

Bernhard Anton Heinrich Kummel (1914)

Frederik Mansfield (1914)

 

Erik Hans Hirschfeld (1914) ?

Guillaume Jean Frederic Wynen (1914)

Domicio da Gama (1915)

Rómulo S. Naón

 

(1915)

Eduardo Suárez-Mojica
(1915)

Charles A. Lindbergh (1928)

Lincoln Ellsworth

 

(1928)

Roald Amundsen
(1928)

Umberto Nobile
(1928)

Thomas A. Edison (1928)

 

John H. Towers (1929)

Albert C. Read (1929)

Elmer F. Stone (1929)

Walter Hinton (1929)

 

Herbert C. Rodd (1929)

James L. Breese (1929)

Eugene Rhoades (1929)

Walter Reed (1929) *

 

James Carroll (1929) *

Jesse W. Lazear (1929) *

Aristides Agramonte (1929)

John H. Andrus (1929)

 

John R. Bullard (1929)

Albert W. Covington (1929)

William H. Dean (1929) *

Wallace W. Forbes (1929)

 

Levi E. Folk (1929)

Paul Hamann (1929)

James L. Hanberry (1929)

Warren G. Jernegan (1929) *

 

John R. Kissinger (1929)

John J. Moran (1929)

William Olsen (1929)

Charles G. Sonntag (1929)

 

Clyde L. West (1929)

Robert P. Cooke (1929)

Thomas M. England (1929)

James Hildebrand (1929)

 

Edward Weatherwalks (1929) *

Richard E. Byrd (1930)

Harry Adams (1930)

Bernt Balchen (1930)

 

Haldor Barnes (1930)

Leland L. Barter (1930)

John J. Bayer (1930)

Lloyd V. Berkner (1930)

 

Arthur Berlin (1930)

George Hamilton Black (1930)

Quin A. Blackburn (1930)

Christoffer Braathen (1930)

 

Gustav L. Brown (1930)

Kennard F. Bubier (1930)

Jacob Bursey (1930)

John Buys (1930)

 

Arnold H. Clark (1930)

Francis D. Coman (1930)

Frederick E. Crockett (1930)

Victor H. Czegka (1930)

 

Frank T. Davies (1930)

E. J. Demas (1930)

D. S. I. Erickson (1930)

James A. Feury (1930)

 

Carroll B. Foster, Jr. (1930)

Joe de Ganahl (1930)

Edward E. Goodale (1930)

Charles F. Gould (1930)

 

Lawrence M. Gould (1930)

Lloyd K. Grenlie (1930)

William C. Haines (1930)

Malcolm P. Hanson (1930)

 

Henry T. Harrison, Jr. (1930)

Alan Innes-Taylor (1930)

Bendik Johansen (1930)

Harold I. June (1930)

 

Charles L. Kessler (1930)

Richard W. Konter (1930)

Charles E. Lofgren (1930)

Howard F. Mason (1930)

 

F. C. Melville (1930)

Thomas B. Mulroy (1930)

C. J. McGuinness (1930)

Ashley C. McKinley (1930)

 

Frank McPherson (1930)

Esmonde M. O’Brien (1930)

John S. O’Brien (1930)

Russell Owen (1930)

 

Alton N. Parker (1930)

A. Walker Perkins (1930)

Carl O. Petersen (1930)

Louis Reichart (1930)

 

Martin Ronne (1930)

Benjamin Roth (1930)

Joseph T. Rucker (1930)

Ralph F. Shropshire (1930)

 

Paul A. Siple (1930)

Dean C. Smith (1930)

Sverre Strom (1930)

John L. Sutton (1930)

 

George W. Tennant (1930)

Elbert J. Thawley (1930)

George A. Thorne, Jr. (1930)

Willard Van der Veer (1930)

 

Norman D. Vaughan (1930)

Vaclav Vojtech (1930)

Arthur T. Walden (1930)

Johannes F. Jensen (1936) ?

 

Lincoln Ellsworth (1936)

George M. Cohan (1936) ?

Margaret Aldrich (1938)

Anna Bouligny (1938) *

 

Howard Hughes (1939)

Francis X. Quinn (1939)

William Sinnott (1940)

Roland Boucher (1942)

 

George Catlett Marshall (1946)

Ernest Joseph King (1946)

John J. Pershing (1946)

William Mitchell (1946) *

 

Alben W. Barkley (1949)

Irving Berlin (1954) ?

Jonas E. Salk (1955)

Gustaf E. Lambert (1956)

 

Albert Woolson (1956) * (Sons of Union Veterans
of the Civil War in lieu of — 1958)

William A. Lundy (1956)

John B. Salling (1956)

Walter W. Williams (1956)

 

Roger P. Ames (1958) *

Hyman George Rickover (1958)

Robert H. Goddard (1959) *

Robert Frost (1960)

 

Thomas Anthony Dooley III (1961) *

Bob Hope (1962)

Sam Rayburn (1962) *

Douglas MacArthur (1962)

 

Walt Disney (1968) *

Winston Churchill (1969) *

Roberto Walker Clemente (1973) *

Marian Anderson (1977)

 

Ira C. Eaker (1978)

Robert F. Kennedy (1978) *

John Wayne (1979)

Ben Abruzzo (1979)

 

Maxie Anderson (1979)

Larry Newman (1979)

Hubert H. Humphrey (1979) *

American Red Cross (1979)

 

Kenneth Taylor (1980)

Simon Wiesenthal (1980)

Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands (1982)

Hyman George Rickover (1982)

 

Fred Waring (1982)

Joe Louis (1982) *

Louis L’Amour (1982)

Leo J. Ryan (1983) *

 

Danny Thomas (1983)

Harry S. Truman (1984) *

Lady Bird Johnson (1984)

Elie Wiesel (1984)

 

Roy Wilkins (1984) *

George Gershwin (1985) *

Ira Gershwin (1985) *

Anatoly Shcharansky (1986)

Avital Shcharansky (1986)

Harry Chapin (1986) *

 

Aaron Copland (1986)

Mary Lasker (1987)

Jesse Owens (1988) *

Andrew Wyeth (1988)

Laurance Spelman Rockefeller (1990)

Matthew B. Ridgway (1990)

 

Colin L. Powell (1991)

H. Norman Schwarzkopf (1991)

Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1994) *

Ruth Graham (1996)

Billy Graham (1996)

Francis Albert Sinatra (1997)

 

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (1997)

Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1997)

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1998)

Jean Brown Trickey (1998)

Carlotta Walls LaNier (1998)

 

Melba Patillo Beals (1998)

Terrence Roberts (1998)

Gloria Ray Karlmark (1998)

Thelma Mothershed Wair (1998)

 

Ernest Green (1998)

Elizabeth Eckford (1998)

Jefferson Thomas (1998)

Gerald R. Ford (1998)

 

Betty Ford (1998)

Rosa Parks (1999)

Theodore M. Hesburgh (1999)

John Cardinal O’Connor (2000)

 

Charles M. Schulz (2000) *

Pope John Paul II (2000)

Ronald Reagan (2000)

Nancy Reagan (2000)

 

Charley Tsosie Begay (2000) *

Roy Begay (2000) *

Samuel Hosteen Nez Begay (2000) *

John Ashi Benally (2000) *

 

Wilsie H. Bitsie (2000) *

Cosey Stanley Brown (2000) *

John Brown, Jr. (2000)

John Chee (2000) *

 

Benjamin H. Cleveland (2000) *

Eugene Roanhorse Crawford (2000) *

David Curley (2000) *

Lowell Smith Damon (2000) *

 

George H. Dennison (2000) *

James Dixon (2000) *

Carl Nelson Gorman (2000) *

Oscar B. Ilthma (2000) *

 

Allen Dale June (2000)

Alfred Leonard (2000) *

James C. Manuelito (2000) *

William McCabe (2000) *

 

Chester Nez (2000)

Jack Nez (2000) *

Lloyd Oliver (2000)

Joe Palmer (aka Balmer Slowtalker) (2000)

 

Frank Danny Pete (2000) *

Nelson S. Thompson (2000) *

Harry Tsosie (2000) *

John W. Willie, Jr. (2000) *

 

William Yazzie (2000) *

General Henry Shelton January 16, 2002

British Prime Minister Tony Blair July 18, 2003

Jackie Robinson October 29, 2003

Dr. Dorothy Height December 6, 2003

Rev. Joseph A. DeLaine, Harry & Eliza Briggs, and Levi Pearson December 15, 2003

Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King October 25, 2004

Tuskegee Airmen[1] April 11, 2006

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama September 27, 2006

Byron Nelson October 16, 2006

Dr. Norman Borlaug December 6, 2006

Dr. Michael E. DeBakey

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Additional Resources:

www.CongressionalGoldMedal.com