title: Albert Finney

text: Finney was offered a contract by the Rank Organisation but turned it down to perform for the Birmingham Rep. He was in a production of "The Miser" for Birmingham Rep, which was filmed for the BBC in 1956. Also for the BBC he appeared in "The Claverdon Road Job" (1957) and "View Friendship and Marriage" (1958). At Birmingham he played the title role in "Henry V", and in 1958, made his London stage debut in Jane Arden's "The Party", directed by Charles Laughton, who starred in the production along with his wife, Elsa Lanchester. In 1959 Finney appeared at Stratford in the title role in "Coriolanus", replacing an ill Laurence Olivier. Finney guest starred on several episodes of "Emergency-Ward 10" and was Lysander in a TV version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1959) directed by Peter Hall.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney's first film appearance was in Tony Richardson's "The Entertainer" (1960), with Laurence Olivier. Finney and Alan Bates played Olivier's sons. He made his film breakthrough in the same year with his portrayal of a disillusioned factory worker in Karel Reisz's film version of Alan Sillitoe's "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (1960), produced by Richardson. The film was a box-office success, being the third most popular film in Britain that year. It earned over half a million pounds in profit. Finney then did "Billy Liar" (1960) on stage and for British television. Finney had been chosen to play T. E. Lawrence in David Lean's production of "Lawrence of Arabia" after a successful and elaborate screen-test that took four days to shoot. However, Finney baulked at signing a multi-year contract for producer Sam Spiegel and chose not to accept the role.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney created the title role in "Luther", the 1961 play by John Osborne depicting the life of Martin Luther. He performed the role with the English Stage Company in London, Nottingham, Paris and New York. The original West End run at the Phoenix ended in March 1962, after 239 performances there, when Finney had to leave the cast to fulfil a contractual obligation with a film company.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney starred in the Academy Award-winning 1963 film "Tom Jones", directed by Richardson and written by Osborne. The success of "Tom Jones" saw British exhibitors vote Finney the ninth most popular star at the box office in 1963. Finney received 10% of the films earnings, which made him over $1 million.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney followed this with a small part in ensemble war movie "The Victors" (1963), which was not a success. He then made his Broadway debut in "Luther" in 1963. When that run ended he decided to take a year off and sail around the world. "People told me to cash in on my success while I was hot," he later said. "I'd been acting for about eight years and had only had one vacation ... Captain Cook had been a hero of mine when I was a kid, and I thought it would be exciting to go to some of the places in the Pacific where he'd been."


title: Albert Finney

text: The success of "Tom Jones" enabled Finney to produce his next film, "Night Must Fall", in 1964, which he also starred in and which was directed by Reisz. A remake of the classic 1937 film of the same title, the film was a flop and Finney's performance received poor reviews.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney undertook a season of plays at the Royal National Theatre, including "Miss Julie" by August Strindberg in 1965. He returned to films with "Two for the Road" (1967) co starring Audrey Hepburn.


title: Albert Finney

text: He and Michael Medwin formed a production company, Memorial Productions, which made "Privilege" (1967), directed by Peter Watkins; "The Burning" (1968), a short directed by Stephen Frears; and "If..." (1968), directed by Lindsay Anderson. Memorial also did stage productions, such as "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg", which Finney performed in London and then Broadway. Memorial also produced some in which Finney did not appear, such as "Spring and Port Wine" and "The Burgular".


title: Albert Finney

text: Memorial then made "Charlie Bubbles" (1968), which Finney starred in and also directed. Liza Minnelli made her feature debut in the film. Finney later called it "the most intense sense of creation I've ever had."


title: Albert Finney

text: As an actor only he made "The Picasso Summer" (1969). Finney played the title role in the musical "Scrooge" in 1970.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney then made "Gumshoe" (1971), the first feature film directed by Stephen Frears, for Memorial. Memorial continued to produce films in which Finney did not appear: "Spring and Port Wine" (1970), with James Mason; "Loving Memory" (1971), an early directorial effort from Tony Scott; "Bleak Moments" (1971), the first feature from Mike Leigh; "O Lucky Man!" (1973) for Anderson; and "Law and Disorder" (1974); shot in Hollywood.


title: Albert Finney

text: In 1972 Finney returned to the stage after a six-year absence with "Alpha Beta", which he later filmed for TV with Rachel Roberts.


title: Albert Finney

text: Memorial Productions pulled out of producing and Finney focused on acting. "It was OK at first," he later said, "but in the end it was sitting in an office, pitching ideas to Hollywood and waiting for the phone to ring."


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney played Agatha Christie's Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot in the film "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974). Finney became so well known for the role that he complained that it typecast him for a number of years, "People really do think I am 300 pounds with a French accent", he said. He received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.


title: Albert Finney

text: He announced he intended to direct a film, "The Girl in Melanie Klein", for Memorial, but it was not made.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney decided to take time off from features and focus on stage acting, doing classics at the National Theatre in London. "I felt that it needed commitment," he later said. "When you're making movies all the time, you stop breathing. You literally don't breathe in the same way that you do when you're playing the classics. When you have to deliver those long, complex speeches on stage, you can't heave your shoulders after every sentence. The set of muscles required for that kind of acting need to be trained. I really wanted to try and do justice to my own potential in the parts. I didn't want to be a movie actor just dropping in, doing Hamlet and taking off again. I wanted to feel part of the company."


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney was at the National for over three years during which he played in Hamlet, Macbeth, Tamburlaine, and plays by Anton Chekhov.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney made a TV film "Forget-Me-Not-Lane" in 1975, which was written by Peter Nichols, and he also performed a cameo role in "The Duellists" (1977), the first feature directed by Ridley Scott. He also released an album through Motown.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney had not played a lead role in a feature film in six years, and started to think about returning to cinema. The last two successful films he had made were "Scrooge" and "Orient Express" in which he was heavily disguised. "Most Americans probably think I weigh 300 pounds, have black hair and talk with a French accent like Hercule Poirot," said Finney. "So I thought they should have a look at me while I was still almost a juvenile and kind of cute."


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney decided to make six films in succession "so that I could relax and get back into it again. In order to feel really assured and comfortable in front of a camera, you've got to do it for a while."


title: Albert Finney

text: The first three were thrillers: "Loophole" (1981), with Susannah York; "Wolfen" (1981), directed by Michael Wadleigh; and "Looker" (1981), written and directed by Michael Crichton.


title: Albert Finney

text: He received excellent reviews for his performance in the drama "Shoot the Moon" (1982). Finney said the role "required personal acting; I had to dig into myself. When you have to expose yourself and use your own vulnerability, you can get a little near the edge."


title: Albert Finney

text: Less well received was his performance as Daddy Warbucks in the Hollywood film version of "Annie" (1982), which was directed by John Huston. Finney said going into this film after "Shoot the Moon" was "marvelous. I use a completely different side of myself as Warbucks. "Annie" is show biz; it's open, simple and direct. It needs bold, primary colors. I don't have to reveal the inner workings of the character, and that's a relief."


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney went into "The Dresser" (1983), directed by Peter Yates, which earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination. He then played the title role in the TV movie "Pope John Paul II" (1984), his American television debut.


title: Albert Finney

text: Huston cast Finney in the lead role of "Under the Volcano" (1984), which earned both men great acclaim, including another Best Actor Oscar nomination for Finney.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney played the lead role of Sydney Kentridge in "The Biko Inquest", a 1984 dramatisation of the inquest into the death of Steve Biko which was filmed for television following a London run.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney performed on stage in "Orphans" in 1986, then did the film version, directed by Alan J. Pakula. He had the lead in a television miniseries, "The Endless Game" (1989), written and directed by Bryan Forbes.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney began the 1990s with the lead role in a film for HBO, "The Image" (1990). He received great acclaim playing the gangster boss in "Miller's Crossing" (1990), replacing Trey Wilson shortly before filming.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney made an appearance at Roger Waters' "The Wall – Live in Berlin" (1990), where he played "The Judge" during the performance of "The Trial".


title: Albert Finney

text: He followed it with "The Playboys" (1992) for Gillies MacKinnon; "Rich in Love" (1993) for Bruce Beresford; "The Browning Version" (1994) for Mike Figgis; "A Man of No Importance" (1994), for Suri Krishnamma; and "The Run of the Country" (1995) for Peter Yates. In 1994, Finney played a gay bus conductor in early 1960s Dublin in "A Man of No Importance".


title: Albert Finney

text: He had the lead role in Dennis Potter's final two plays, "Karaoke" (1996) and "Cold Lazarus" (both 1996). In the latter he played a frozen, disembodied head.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney did "Nostromo" (1997) for television, and "Washington Square" (1997) for Agnieszka Holland then made "A Rather English Marriage" (1998) with Tom Courtenay. He had supporting roles in "Breakfast of Champions" (1999) and "Simpatico" (1999).


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney had his biggest hit in several years with "Erin Brockovich" (2000), alongside Julia Roberts for Steven Soderbergh. His portrayal of real-life California lawyer Edward L. Masry earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, his fifth and final Oscar nomination.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney had a cameo in Soderbergh's "Traffic" (2000) and played Ernest Hemingway in "Hemingway, the Hunter of Death" (2001) for TV.


title: Albert Finney

text: He had the lead in "Delivering Milo" (2001) and in 2002 his critically acclaimed portrayal of Winston Churchill in "The Gathering Storm" won him British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), Emmy and Golden Globe awards as Best Actor.


title: Albert Finney

text: He also played the title role in the television series "My Uncle Silas", based on the short stories by H. E. Bates, about a roguish but lovable poacher-cum-farm labourer looking after his great-nephew. The show ran for two series broadcast in 2001 and 2003.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney had a key role in "Big Fish" (2003) directed by Tim Burton, and did another cameo for Soderbergh in "Ocean's Twelve" (2004). He sang in Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride" (2005) and the film of "Aspects of Love" (2005).


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney was reunited with Ridley Scott in "A Good Year" (2006). He had support roles in "Amazing Grace" (2006), "The Bourne Ultimatum" (2007), and "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" (2007). His final film role was in "Skyfall" (2012).


title: Albert Finney

text: A lifelong supporter of Manchester United, Finney narrated the documentary "Munich", about the air crash that killed most of the Busby Babes in 1958, which was shown on United's TV channel MUTV in February 2008.


title: Albert Finney

text: He received Tony Award nominations for "Luther" (1964) and "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg" (1968), and also starred on stage in "Love for Love", Strindberg's "Miss Julie", "Black Comedy", "The Country Wife", "Alpha Beta", Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape", "Tamburlaine the Great", "Another Time" and, his last stage appearance, in 1997, ""Art"" by Yasmina Reza, which preceded the 1998 Tony Award-winning Broadway run.


title: Albert Finney

text: He won an Olivier Award for "Orphans" in 1986 and won three "Evening Standard" Theatre Awards for Best Actor.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney never abandoned stage work and continued his association with the National Theatre Company in London, where he had performed in the mid-1960s in Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" at the Old Vic and Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" in the 1970s at the National Theatre.


title: Albert Finney

text: With his first wife, Jane Wenham, he had a son, Simon Finney, who works in the film industry as a camera operator. In 1970, nearly a decade after his divorce from Wenham, Finney married French actress Anouk Aimée, a union that lasted eight years. He then married for the third and last time in 2006, to Penelope Delmage, who at the time was working as a travel agent. They remained together until Finney's death.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney in May 2011 publicly disclosed that he had been receiving treatment for kidney cancer. According to a 2012 interview, he had been diagnosed with the disease five years earlier and underwent surgery, followed by six rounds of chemotherapy. Finney died of a chest infection at the Royal Marsden Hospital on 7 February 2019; he was 82.


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney declined the offer of a CBE in 1980, as well as a knighthood in 2000. He criticised such honours as "perpetuating snobbery".


title: Albert Finney

text: Julia Roberts mentioned Finney in her Oscar acceptance speech for Best Actress in "Erin Brockovich", calling him a "pleasure to act with".


title: Albert Finney

text: Other awards include: a Golden Laurel for his work on "Scrooge" (1970) and for his work on "Tom Jones", for which he was the 3rd Place Winner for the "Top Male Comedy Performance" for 1964. He was honoured by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association as Best Actor for "Under the Volcano" (which he tied with F. Murray Abraham for "Amadeus"), the National Board of Review Best Actor award for "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning", and the New York Film Critics Circle Best Actor award for "Tom Jones".


title: Albert Finney

text: Finney won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, for "Erin Brockovich", and as a member of the acting ensemble in the film "Traffic". He was also nominated for "The Gathering Storm", for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries, but did not win.


title: Albert Finney

text: He won the Silver Berlin Bear award for Best Actor, for "The Dresser", at the 34th Berlin International Film Festival in 1984.


title: John Glenn

text: John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1962. Following his retirement from NASA, he served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic United States Senator from Ohio; in 1998, he flew into space again at age 77.


title: John Glenn

text: Before joining NASA, Glenn was a distinguished fighter pilot in World War II, the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War. He shot down three MiG-15s, and was awarded six Distinguished Flying Crosses and eighteen Air Medals. In 1957, he made the first supersonic transcontinental flight across the United States. His on-board camera took the first continuous, panoramic photograph of the United States.


title: John Glenn

text: He was one of the Mercury Seven, military test pilots selected in 1959 by NASA as the nation's first astronauts. On February 20, 1962, Glenn flew the "Friendship 7" mission, becoming the first American to orbit the Earth, the third American and fifth person in history to be in space. He received the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1962, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978, was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn resigned from NASA in January 1964. A member of the Democratic Party, Glenn was first elected to the Senate in 1974 and served for 24 years, until January 1999. Aged 77, Glenn flew on Space Shuttle "Discovery" STS-95 mission, making him the oldest person to enter Earth orbit, and the only person to fly in both the Mercury and the Space Shuttle programs. Glenn, both the oldest and the last surviving member of the Mercury Seven, died at the age of 95 on December 8, 2016.


title: John Glenn

text: John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio, the son of John Herschel Glenn Sr. (1895–1966), who worked for a plumbing firm, and Clara Teresa Glenn (; 1897–1971), a teacher. His parents had married shortly before John Sr., a member of the American Expeditionary Force, left for the Western Front during World War I. The family moved to New Concord, Ohio, soon after his birth, and his father started his own business, the Glenn Plumbing Company. Glenn Jr. was only a toddler when he met Anna Margaret (Annie) Castor, whom he would later marry. The two would not be able to recall a time when they did not know each other. He first flew in an airplane with his father when he was eight years old. He became fascinated by flight, and built model airplanes from balsa wood kits. Along with his adopted sister Jean, he attended New Concord Elementary School. He washed cars and sold rhubarb to earn money to buy a bicycle, after which he took a job delivering "The Columbus Dispatch" newspaper. He was a member of the Ohio Rangers, an organization similar to the Cub Scouts. His boyhood home in New Concord has been restored as a historic house museum and education center.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn attended New Concord High School, where he played on the varsity football team as a center and linebacker. He also made the varsity basketball and tennis teams, and was involved with Hi-Y, a junior branch of the YMCA. After graduating in 1939, Glenn entered Muskingum College (now Muskingum University), where he studied chemistry, joined the Stag Club fraternity, and played on the football team. Annie majored in music with minors in secretarial studies and physical education and competed on the swimming and volleyball teams, graduating in 1942. Glenn earned a private pilot license and a physics course credit for free through the Civilian Pilot Training Program in 1941. He did not complete his senior year in residence or take a proficiency exam, both required by the school for its Bachelor of Science degree.


title: John Glenn

text: When the United States entered World War II, Glenn quit college to enlist in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was not called to duty by the Army, and enlisted as a U.S. Navy aviation cadet in March 1942. Glenn attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City for pre-flight training and made his first solo flight in a military aircraft at Naval Air Station Olathe in Kansas, where he went for primary training. During advanced training at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi in Texas, he accepted an offer to transfer to the U.S. Marine Corps. Having completed his flight training in March 1943, Glenn was commissioned as a second lieutenant. Glenn married Annie in a Presbyterian ceremony at College Drive Church in New Concord, Ohio, on April 6, 1943. After advanced training at Camp Kearny, California, he was assigned to Marine Squadron VMJ-353, which flew R4D transport planes from there.


title: John Glenn

text: The fighter squadron VMO-155 was also at Camp Kearny flying the Grumman F4F Wildcat. Glenn approached the squadron's commander, Major J. P. Haines, who suggested that he could put in for a transfer. This was approved, and Glenn was posted to VMO-155 on July 2, 1943, two days before the squadron moved to Marine Corps Air Station El Centro in California. The Wildcat was obsolete by this time, and VMO-155 re-equipped with the F4U Corsair in September 1943. He was promoted to first lieutenant in October 1943, and shipped out to Hawaii in January 1944. VMO-155 became part of the garrison on Midway Atoll on February 21, then moved to the Marshall Islands in June 1944 and flew 57 combat missions in the area. He received two Distinguished Flying Crosses and ten Air Medals.


title: John Glenn

text: At the end of his one-year tour of duty in February 1945, Glenn was assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina, then to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. He was promoted to captain in July 1945 and ordered back to Cherry Point. There, he joined VMF-913, another Corsair squadron, and learned that he had qualified for a regular commission. In March 1946, he was assigned to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in southern California. He volunteered for service with the occupation in North China, believing it would be a short tour. He joined VMF-218 (another Corsair squadron), which was based at Nanyuan Field near Beijing, in December 1946, and flew patrol missions until VMF-218 was transferred to Guam in March 1947.


title: John Glenn

text: In December 1948, Glenn was re-posted to NAS Corpus Christi as a student at the Naval School of All-Weather Flight before becoming a flight instructor. In July 1951, he traveled to the Amphibious Warfare School at Marine Corps Base Quantico in northern Virginia for a six-month course. He then joined the staff of the commandant of the Marine Corps Schools. He maintained his proficiency (and flight pay) by flying on weekends due to only being given four hours of flying time per month. He was promoted to major in July 1952. Glenn received the World War II Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with one star), Navy Occupation Service Medal (with Asia clasp), and the China Service Medal for his efforts.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn moved his family back to New Concord during a short period of leave, and after two and a half months of jet training at Cherry Point, was ordered to South Korea in October 1952, late in the Korean War. Before he set out for Korea in February 1953, he applied to fly the F-86 Sabre jet fighter-interceptor through an inter-service exchange position with the U.S. Air Force (USAF). In preparation, he arranged with Colonel Leon W. Gray to check out the F-86 at Otis Air Force Base in Massachusetts. Glenn reported to K-3, an airbase in South Korea, on February 3, 1953, and was assigned to be the operations officer for VMF-311, one of two Marine fighter squadrons there while he waited for the exchange assignment to go through. VMF-311 was equipped with the F9F Panther jet fighter-bomber. Glenn's first mission was a reconnaissance flight on February 26. He flew 63 combat missions in Korea with VMF-311, and was nicknamed "Magnet Ass" because of the number of flak hits he took on low-level close air support missions; twice, he returned to base with over 250 holes in his plane. He flew for a time with Marine reservist Ted Williams (a future Hall of Fame baseball player with the Boston Red Sox) as his wingman. Williams later said about Glenn "Absolutely fearless. The best I ever saw. It was an honor to fly with him." Glenn also flew with future major general Ralph H. Spanjer.


title: John Glenn

text: In June 1953, Glenn reported for duty with the USAF's 25th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, and flew 27 combat missions in the F-86, a much faster aircraft than the F9F Panther, patrolling MiG Alley. Combat with a MiG-15, which was faster and better armed still, was regarded as a rite of passage for a fighter pilot. On the Air Force buses that ferried the pilots out to the airfields before dawn, pilots who had engaged a MiG could sit while those who had not had to stand. Glenn later wrote, "Since the days of the Lafayette Escadrille during World War I, pilots have viewed air-to-air combat as the ultimate test not only of their machines but of their own personal determination and flying skills. I was no exception." He hoped to become the second Marine jet flying ace after John F. Bolt. Glenn's USAF squadron mates painted "MiG Mad Marine" on his aircraft when he complained about there not being any MIGs to shoot at. He shot down his first MiG in a dogfight on July 12, 1953, downed a second one on July 19, and a third on July 22 when four Sabres shot down three MiGs. These were the final air victories of the war, which ended with an armistice five days later. For his service in Korea, Glenn received two more Distinguished Flying Crosses and eight more Air Medals. Glenn also received the Korean Service Medal (with two campaign stars), United Nations Korea Medal, Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal, National Defense Service Medal (with one star), and the Korean War Service Medal.


title: John Glenn

text: With combat experience as a fighter pilot, Glenn applied for training as a test pilot while still in Korea. He reported to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at NAS Patuxent River in Maryland in January 1954, and graduated in July. At Patuxent River, future Medal of Honor recipient James Stockdale tutored him in physics and math. Glenn's first flight test assignment, testing the FJ-3 Fury, nearly killed him when its cockpit depressurized and its oxygen system failed. He also tested the armament of aircraft such as the Vought F7U Cutlass and F8U Crusader. From November 1956 to April 1959, he was assigned to the Fighter Design Branch of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, D.C., and attended the University of Maryland.


title: John Glenn

text: On July 16, 1957, he made the first supersonic transcontinental flight. Disliking his Bureau of Aeronautics desk job, he devised the flight as both a way to keep flying and publicly demonstrate the F8U Crusader. At that time, the transcontinental speed record, held by an Air Force Republic F-84 Thunderjet, was 3 hours 45 minutes and Glenn calculated that the F8U Crusader could do it faster. Because its air speed was faster than that of a .45 caliber bullet, Glenn called the flight "Project Bullet". He flew an F8U Crusader from Los Alamitos, California to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 8.3 seconds, averaging supersonic speed despite three in-flight refuelings when speeds dropped below . His on-board camera took the first continuous, transcontinental panoramic photograph of the United States. He received his fifth Distinguished Flying Cross for this mission, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 1, 1959. The cross-country flight made Glenn a minor celebrity. A profile appeared in "The New York Times" and he appeared on the television show "Name That Tune". Glenn now had nearly 9,000 hours of flying time, including about 3,000 hours in jets, but knew that at the age of 36, he was now likely too old to continue to fly.


title: John Glenn

text: On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This damaged American confidence in its technological superiority, creating a wave of anxiety known as the Sputnik crisis. In response, President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched the Space Race. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was established on October 1, 1958, as a civilian agency to develop space technology. One of its first initiatives was announced on December 17, 1958. This was Project Mercury, which aimed to launch a man into Earth orbit, return him safely to the Earth, and evaluate his capabilities in space.


title: John Glenn

text: His Bureau of Aeronautics job gave Glenn access to new spaceflight news, such as the X-15 rocket plane. While on duty at Patuxent and in Washington, Glenn read everything he could find about space. His office was asked to send a test pilot to Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to make runs on a spaceflight simulator, as part of research by the newly formed NASA into re-entry vehicle shapes. The pilot would also be sent to the Naval Air Development Center in Johnsville, Pennsylvania, and would be subjected to high G-forces in a centrifuge for comparison with data collected in the simulator. His request for the position was granted, and he spent several days at Langley and a week in Johnsville for the testing. As one of the very few pilots to have done such testing, Glenn had become an expert on the subject. NASA asked military-service members to participate in planning the mockup of a spacecraft. Having participated in the research at Langley and Johnsville, he was sent to the McDonnell plant in St. Louis as a service adviser to NASA's spacecraft mockup board. Envisioning himself in the vehicle, Glenn stated that the passenger would have to be able to control the spacecraft. McDonnell engineers told him of the importance of lightening the vehicle as much as possible, so Glenn began exercising to lose the 30 pounds he estimated that he was overweight.


title: John Glenn

text: Eisenhower directed NASA to recruit its first astronauts from military test pilots. Of 508 graduates of test pilot schools, 110 matched the minimum standards. Marine Corps pilots were mistakenly omitted at first; two were quickly found, including Glenn. The candidates had to be younger than 40, possess a bachelor's degree or equivalent, and be or less. Only the height requirement was strictly enforced, owing to the size of the Project Mercury spacecraft. This was fortunate for Glenn, who barely met the requirements, as he was near the age cutoff and lacked a science-based degree, but had taken more classes since leaving college than needed for graduation. Glenn was otherwise so outstanding a candidate that Colonel Jake Dill, his commanding officer at test pilot school, visited NASA headquarters to insist that Glenn would be the perfect astronaut.


title: John Glenn

text: For an interview with Charles Donlan, associate director of Project Mercury, Glenn brought the results from the centrifuge to show that he had done well on a test that perhaps no other candidate had taken. Donlan also noticed that Glenn stayed late at night to study schematics of the Mercury spacecraft. He was among the 32 of the first 69 candidates that passed the first step of the evaluation and were interested in continuing, sufficient for the astronaut corps NASA wanted. On February 27 a grueling series of physical and psychological tests began at the Lovelace Clinic and the Wright Aerospace Medical Laboratory.


title: John Glenn

text: Because of his Bureau of Aeronautics job, Glenn was already participating in Project Mercury; while other candidates were at Wright, on March 17 he and most of those who would choose the astronauts visited the McDonnell plant building the spacecraft to inspect its progress and make changes. While Glenn had not scored the highest on all the tests, a member of the selection committee recalled how he had impressed everyone with "strength of personality and his dedication". On April 6 Donlan called Glenn to offer him a position at Project Mercury, one of seven candidates chosen as astronauts. Glenn was pleased while Annie was supportive, but wary of the danger; during his three years at Patuxent, 12 test pilots had died.


title: John Glenn

text: The identities of the seven were announced at a press conference at Dolley Madison House in Washington, D.C., on April 9, 1959: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. In "The Right Stuff", Tom Wolfe wrote that Glenn "came out of it as tops among seven very fair-haired boys. He had the hottest record as a pilot, he was the most quotable, the most photogenic, and the lone Marine." The magnitude of the challenge ahead of them was made clear a few weeks later, on the night of May 18, 1959, when the seven astronauts gathered at Cape Canaveral to watch their first rocket launch, of an SM-65D Atlas, which was similar to the one that was to carry them into orbit. A few minutes after liftoff, it exploded spectacularly, lighting up the night sky. The astronauts were stunned. Shepard turned to Glenn and said: "Well, I'm glad they got that out of the way."


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn remained an officer in the Marine Corps after his selection, and was assigned to the NASA Space Task Group at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The task force moved to Houston, Texas, in 1962, and became part of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center. A portion of the astronauts' training was in the classroom, where they learned space science. The group also received hands-on training, which included scuba diving and work in simulators. Astronauts secured an additional role in the spaceflight program: to provide pilot input in design. The astronauts divided the various tasks between them. Glenn's specialization was cockpit layout design and control functioning for the Mercury and early Apollo programs. He pressed the other astronauts to set a moral example, living up to the squeaky-clean image of them that had been portrayed by "Life" magazine, a position that was not popular with the other astronauts.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn was the backup pilot for Shepard and Grissom on the first two crewed Project Mercury flights, the sub-orbital missions Mercury-Redstone 3 and Mercury-Redstone 4. Glenn was selected for Mercury-Atlas 6, NASA's first crewed orbital flight, with Carpenter as his backup. Putting a man in orbit would achieve one of Project Mercury's most important goals. Shepard and Grissom had named their spacecraft "Freedom 7" and "Liberty Bell 7". The numeral 7 had originally been the production number of Shepard's spacecraft, but had come to represent the Mercury 7. Glenn named his spacecraft, number 13, "Friendship 7", and had the name hand-painted on the side like the one on his F-86 had been. Glenn and Carpenter completed their training for the mission in January 1962, but postponement of the launch allowed them to continue rehearsing. Glenn spent 25 hours and 25 minutes in the spacecraft performing hangar and altitude tests, and 59 hours and 45 minutes in the simulator. He flew 70 simulated missions and reacted to 189 simulated system failures.


title: John Glenn

text: After a long series of delays, "Friendship 7" lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on February 20, 1962. There were eleven delays during the countdown due to equipment malfunctions and improvements and the weather. During Glenn's first orbit, a failure of the automatic-control system was detected. This forced Glenn to operate in manual mode for the second and third orbits, and for re-entry. Later in the flight, telemetry indicated that the heat shield had loosened. If this reading had been accurate, Glenn and his spacecraft would have burned up on re-entry. After a lengthy discussion on how to deal with this problem, ground controllers decided that leaving the retrorocket pack in place might help keep the loose heat shield in place. They relayed these instructions to Glenn, but did not tell him the heat shield was possibly loose; although confused at this order, he complied. The retrorocket pack broke up into large chunks of flaming debris that flew past the window of his capsule during re-entry; Glenn thought this might have been the heat shield. He told an interviewer, "Fortunately it was the rocket pack—or I wouldn't be answering these questions." After the flight, it was determined that the heat shield was not loose; the sensor was faulty.


title: John Glenn

text: "Friendship 7" safely splashed down southeast of Cape Canaveral after Glenn's 4-hour, 55-minute flight. He carried a note on the flight which read, "I am a stranger. I come in peace. Take me to your leader and there will be a massive reward for you in eternity" in several languages, in case he landed near southern Pacific Ocean islands. The original procedure called for Glenn to exit through the top hatch, but he was uncomfortably warm and decided that egress through the side hatch would be faster. During the flight, he endured 7.8 G of acceleration and traveled at about . The flight took Glenn to a maximum altitude (apogee) of about and a minimum altitude of (perigee). Unlike the crewed missions of Soviet Union's Vostok programme, Glenn remained within the spacecraft during landing. The flight made Glenn the first American to orbit the Earth, the third American in space, and the fifth human in space. The mission, which Glenn called the "best day of his life", renewed U.S. confidence. His flight occurred while the U.S. and the Soviet Union were embroiled in the Cold War and competing in the Space Race.


title: John Glenn

text: As the first American in orbit, Glenn became a national hero, met President John F. Kennedy, and received a ticker-tape parade in New York reminiscent of those honoring Charles Lindbergh and other heroes. He became "so valuable to the nation as an iconic figure", according to NASA administrator Charles Bolden, that Kennedy would not "risk putting him back in space again." Glenn's fame and political potential were noted by the Kennedys, and he became a friend of the Kennedy family. On February 23, 1962, President Kennedy gave him the NASA Distinguished Service Medal for his "Friendship 7" flight. Upon receiving the award, Glenn said, "I would like to consider I was a figurehead for this whole big, tremendous effort, and I am very proud of the medal I have on my lapel." Glenn also received his sixth Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts. He was among the first group of astronauts to be awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. The award was presented to him by President Jimmy Carter in 1978. After his 1962 spaceflight, NASA proposed giving Glenn the Medal of Honor, but Glenn did not think that would be appropriate. His military and space awards were stolen from his home in 1978, and he remarked that he would keep this medal in a safe.


title: John Glenn

text: In 1962, NASA contemplated recruiting women to the astronaut corps via the Mercury 13, but Glenn gave a speech before the House Space Committee detailing his opposition to sending women into space, in which he said:


title: John Glenn

text: In May 1965, after he left NASA, Glenn was quoted in the "Miami Herald" as saying NASA "offer a serious chance for space women" as scientist astronauts.


title: John Glenn

text: NASA had no official policy prohibiting women, but the requirement that astronauts had to be test pilots effectively excluded them. NASA dropped this requirement in 1965, but did not select any women as astronauts until 1978, when six women were selected, none as pilots. In June 1963, the Soviet Union launched a female cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, into orbit. After Tereshkova, no women of any nationality flew in space again until August 1982, when the Soviet Union launched pilot-cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya. During the late 1970s, Glenn reportedly supported Space Shuttle Mission Specialist Judith Resnik in her career.


title: John Glenn

text: At 42, Glenn was the oldest member of the astronaut corps and would likely be close to 50 by the time the lunar landings took place. During Glenn's training, NASA psychologists determined that he was the astronaut best suited for public life. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy suggested to Glenn and his wife in December 1962 that he run for the 1964 United States Senate election in Ohio, challenging aging incumbent Stephen M. Young (1889–1984) in the Democratic primary election. As it seemed unlikely that he would be selected for Project Apollo missions, he resigned from NASA on January 16, 1964, and announced his Democratic Party candidacy for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Ohio the following day, becoming the first astronaut-politician. Glenn was still a Marine, and had plenty of unused leave time. He elected to use it while he waited for his retirement papers to go through.


title: John Glenn

text: To avoid partisanship, NASA quickly closed Glenn's agency office. "The New York Times" reported that while many Ohioans were skeptical of Glenn's qualifications for the Senate, he could defeat Young in the Democratic primary; whether he could defeat Representative Robert Taft Jr., the likely Republican candidate, in the general election was much less clear. In late February he was hospitalized for a concussion sustained in a fall against a bathtub while attempting to fix a mirror in a hotel room; an inner-ear injury from the accident left him unable to campaign. Both his wife and Scott Carpenter campaigned on his behalf during February and March, but doctors gave Glenn a recovery time of one year. Glenn did not want to win solely due to his astronaut fame, so he dropped out of the race on March 30.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn was still on leave from the Marine Corps, and he withdrew his papers to retire so he could keep a salary and health benefits. Glenn was on the list of potential candidates to be promoted to full colonel, but he notified the Commandant of the Marine Corps of his intention to retire so another Marine could receive the promotion. President Johnson later decided to promote Glenn to full colonel status without taking someone else's slot. He retired as a colonel on January 1, 1965. Glenn was approached by RC Cola to join their public relations department, but Glenn declined it because he wanted to be involved with a business, and not just the face of it. The company revised their offer, and offered Glenn a vice president of corporate development position, as well as a place on the board of directors. The company later expanded Glenn's role, promoting him to president of Royal Crown International. A Senate seat was open in 1968, and Glenn was asked about his current political aspirations. He said he had no current plan, and "Let's talk about it one of these days." Glenn also said that a 1970 Senate run was a possibility.


title: John Glenn

text: In 1973, he and a friend bought a Holiday Inn near Disney World. The success of Disney World expanded to their business, and the pair built three more hotels. One of Glenn's business partners was Henri Landwirth, a Holocaust survivor who became his best friend. He remembered learning about Landwirth's background: "Henri doesn't talk about it much. It was years before he spoke about it with me and then only because of an accident. We were down in Florida during the space program. Everyone was wearing short-sleeved Ban-Lon shirts—everyone but Henri. Then one day I saw Henri at the pool and noticed the number on his arm. I told Henri that if it were me I'd wear that number like a medal with a spotlight on it."


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn remained close to the Kennedy family, and campaigned for Robert F. Kennedy during his 1968 presidential campaign. In 1968, Glenn was in Kennedy's hotel suite when Kennedy heard he had won California. Glenn was supposed to go with him to celebrate, but decided not to as there would be many people there. Kennedy went downstairs to make his victory speech and was assassinated. Glenn and Annie went with Kennedy to the hospital, and the next morning took Kennedy's children home to Virginia. Glenn was later a pallbearer at the funeral in New York.


title: John Glenn

text: In 1970, Young did not seek reelection and the seat was open. Businessman Howard Metzenbaum, Young's former campaign manager, was backed by the Ohio Democratic party and major labor unions, which provided him a significant funding advantage over Glenn. Glenn's camp persuaded him to be thrifty during the primary so he could save money for the general election. By the end of the primary campaign, Metzenbaum was spending four times as much as Glenn. Glenn was defeated in the Democratic primary by Metzenbaum (who received 51 percent of the vote to Glenn's 49 percent). Some prominent Democrats said Glenn was a "hapless political rube", and one newspaper called him "the ultimate square".


title: John Glenn

text: Metzenbaum lost the general election to Robert Taft Jr. Glenn remained active in the political scene following his defeat. Governor John J. Gilligan appointed Glenn to be the chairman of the Citizens Task Force on Environmental Protection in 1970. The task force was created to survey environmental problems in the state and released a report in 1971 detailing the issues. The meetings and the final report of the task force were major contributors to the formation of Ohio's Environmental Protection Agency.


title: John Glenn

text: In 1973, President Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Richardson refused and resigned in protest, triggering the Saturday Night massacre. Ohio Senator William Saxbe, elected in 1968, was appointed attorney general. Both Glenn and Metzenbaum sought the vacated seat, which was to be filled by Governor John Gilligan. Gilligan was planning on a presidential or vice-presidential run in the near future, and offered Glenn the lieutenant governor position, with the thought that Glenn would ascend to governor when Gilligan was elected to a higher position. The Ohio Democratic party backed this solution to avoid what was expected to be a divisive primary battle between Metzenbaum and Glenn. He declined, denouncing their attempts as "bossism" and "blackmail". Glenn's counteroffer suggested that Gilligan fill the position with someone other than Metzenbaum or Glenn so neither would have an advantage going into the 1974 election. Metzenbaum's campaign agreed to back Gilligan in his governor re-election campaign, and Metzenbaum was subsequently appointed in January 1974 to the vacated seat. At the end of Saxbe's term, Glenn challenged Metzenbaum in the primary for the Ohio Senate seat.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn's campaign changed their strategy after the 1970 election. In 1970, Glenn won most of the counties in Ohio, but lost in those with larger populations. The campaign changed its focus, and worked primarily in the large counties. In the primary, Metzenbaum contrasted his strong business background with Glenn's military and astronaut credentials and said that his opponent had "never held a payroll". Glenn's reply became known as the "Gold Star Mothers" speech. He told Metzenbaum to go to a veterans' hospital and "look those men with mangled bodies in the eyes and tell them they didn't hold a job. You go with me to any Gold Star mother and you look her in the eye and tell her that her son did not hold a job". He defeated Metzenbaum 54 to 46 percent before defeating Ralph Perk (the Republican mayor of Cleveland) in the general election, beginning a Senate career which would continue until 1999.


title: John Glenn

text: In the 1976 presidential election, Jimmy Carter was the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. Glenn was reported to be in consideration for the vice-presidential nomination because he was a senator in a pivotal state and for his fame and straightforwardness. Some thought he was too much like Carter, partially because they both had military backgrounds, and that he did not have enough experience to become president. Barbara Jordan was the first keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention. Her speech electrified the crowd, and was filled with applause and standing ovations. Glenn's keynote address immediately followed Jordan's, and he failed to impress the delegates. Walter Cronkite described it as "dull", and other delegates complained that he was hard to hear. Carter called Glenn to inform him the nomination was going to another candidate, and later nominated the veteran politician Walter Mondale. It was also reported that Carter's wife thought Annie Glenn, who had a stutter, would hurt the campaign.


title: John Glenn

text: In his first reelection campaign, Glenn ran opposed in the primary for the 1980 Senate election. His opponents, engineer Francis Hunstiger and ex-teacher Frances Waterman, were not well-known and poorly funded. His opponents spent only a few thousand dollars on the campaign, while Glenn spent $700,000. Reporters noted that for a race he was likely to win, Glenn was spending a lot of time and money on the campaign. His chief strategist responded to the remarks saying, "It's the way he does things. He takes nothing for granted." Glenn won the primary by a landslide, with 934,230 of the 1.09 million votes.


title: John Glenn

text: Jim Betts, who ran unopposed in the Republican primary, challenged Glenn for his seat. Betts publicly stated that Glenn's policies were part of the reason for inflation increases and a lower standard of living. Betts' campaign also attacked Glenn's voting record, saying that he often voted for spending increases. Glenn's campaign's response was that he has been a part of over 3,000 roll calls and "any one of them could be taken out of context". Glenn was projected to win the race easily, and won by the largest margin ever for an Ohio Senator, defeating Betts by over 40 percent.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn was unhappy with how divided the country was, and thought labels like conservative and liberal increased the divide. He considered himself a centrist. Glenn thought a more centrist president would help unite the country. Glenn believed his experience as a senator from Ohio was ideal, due to the state's diversity. Glenn thought that Ted Kennedy could win the election, but after Kennedy's announcement in late 1982 that he would not seek the presidency, Glenn thought he had a much better chance of winning. He hired a media consultant to help him with his speaking style.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn announced his candidacy for president on April 21, 1983, in the John Glenn High School gymnasium. He started out the campaign out-raising the front-runner, Mondale. He also polled the highest of any Democrat against Reagan. During the fall of 1983, "The Right Stuff", a film about the Mercury Seven astronauts, was released. Reviewers saw Ed Harris' portrayal of Glenn as heroic and his staff began to publicize the film to the press. One reviewer said that "Harris' depiction helped transform Glenn from a history-book figure into a likable, thoroughly adoration-worthy Hollywood hero," turning him into a big-screen icon. Others considered the movie to be damaging to Glenn's campaign, serving as only a reminder that Glenn's most significant achievement had occurred decades earlier. Glenn's autobiography said the film "had a chilling effect on the campaign."


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn's campaign decided to forgo the traditional campaigning in early caucuses and primaries, and focus on building campaign offices across the country. He opened offices in 43 states by January 1984. Glenn's campaign spent a significant amount of money on television advertising in Iowa, and Glenn chose not to attend an Iowan debate on farm issues. He finished fifth in the Iowa caucus, and went on to lose New Hampshire. Glenn's campaign continued into Super Tuesday, and he lost there as well. He announced his withdrawal from the race on March 16, 1984. After Mondale defeated him for the nomination, Glenn carried $3 million in campaign debt for over 20 years before receiving a reprieve from the Federal Election Commission.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn's Senate seat was challenged by Thomas Kindness. Kindness was unopposed in his primary, while Glenn faced Lyndon LaRouche supporter Don Scott. LaRouche supporters had been recently elected in Illinois, but the Ohio Democratic Party chairman did not think it was likely they would see the same success in Ohio. LaRouche was known for his fringe theories, such as the queen of England being a drug dealer. Kindness spoke to his supporters and warned them against LaRouche candidates. He issued a statement telling voters to reject LaRouche candidates in both Republican and Democratic primaries. Glenn won the primary contest with 88% of the vote.


title: John Glenn

text: With the primary complete, Glenn began his campaign against Kindness. Glenn believed he and other Democrats were the targets of a negative campaign thought up by the GOP strategists in Washington. Kindness focused on Glenn's campaign debts for his failed presidential run, and the fact he stopped payments on it while campaigning for the Senate seat. After winning the race with 62% of the vote, Glenn remarked, "We proved that in 1986, they couldn't kill Glenn with Kindness."


title: John Glenn

text: In 1992, Republican Mike DeWine won the Republican primary and challenged Glenn in the Senate election. Glenn ran unopposed in the primary. DeWine's campaign focused on the need for change and for term limits for senators. This would be Glenn's fourth term as senator. DeWine also criticized Glenn's campaign debts, using a bunny dressed as an astronaut beating a drum, with an announcer saying, "He just keeps owing and owing and owing", a play on the Energizer Bunny. During a debate, Glenn asked DeWine to stop his negative campaign ads, saying "This has been the most negative campaign". DeWine responded that he would if Glenn would disclose how he spent the money he received from Charles Keating, fallout from Glenn being named one of the Keating Five. Glenn won the Senate seat, with 2.4 million votes to DeWine's 2 million votes. It was DeWine's first-ever campaign loss. DeWine later worked on the intelligence committee with Glenn and watched his second launch into space.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn requested to be assigned to two committees during his first year as senator: the Government Operations Committee (later known as the Committee on Governmental Affairs), and the Foreign Relations Committee. He was immediately assigned to the Government Operations Committee, and waited for a seat on the Foreign Relations Committee. In 1977, Glenn wanted to chair the Energy, Nuclear Proliferation, and Federal Services Subcommittee of the Governmental Affairs Committee. Abraham Ribicoff, chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee, said he could chair the subcommittee if he also chaired the less popular Federal Services Subcommittee, which was in charge of the U.S. Postal Service. Previous chairs of the Federal Services Subcommittee lost elections due in part to negative campaigns that tied in the poorly regarded mail service with the chairmen, but Glenn accepted the offer and became the chair of both subcommittees. One of his goals as a new senator was developing environmental policies. Glenn introduced bills on energy policy to try to counter the energy crisis in the 70s. Glenn also introduced legislation promoting nuclear non-proliferation, and was the chief author of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978, the first of six major pieces of legislation that he produced on the subject.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn chaired the Committee on Governmental Affairs from 1987 to 1995. It was in this role that he discovered safety and environmental problems with the nation's nuclear weapons facilities. Glenn was made aware of the problem at the Fernald Feed Materials Production Center near Cincinnati, and soon found that it affected sites across the nation. Glenn requested investigations from the General Accounting Office of Congress and held several hearings on the issue. He also released a report on the potential costs of hazardous waste cleanup at former nuclear weapons manufacturing facilities, known as the Glenn Report. He spent the remainder of his Senate career acquiring funding to clean up the nuclear waste left at the facilities.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn also focused on reducing government waste. He created legislation to mandate CFOs for large governmental agencies. Glenn wrote a bill to add the office of the inspector general to federal agencies, to help find waste and fraud. He also created legislation intended to prevent the federal government from imposing regulations on local governments without funding. Glenn founded the Great Lakes Task Force, which helped protect the environment of the Great Lakes.


title: John Glenn

text: In 1995 Glenn became the ranking minority member of the Committee on Governmental Affairs. Glenn disputed the focus on illegal Chinese donations to the Democrats, and asserted that Republicans also had egregious fundraising issues. The committee chair, Fred Thompson of Tennessee, disagreed and continued the investigation. Thompson and Glenn continued to work together poorly for the duration of the investigation. Thompson would give Glenn only information he was legally required to. Glenn would not authorize a larger budget and tried to expand the scope of the investigation to include members of the GOP. The investigation concluded with a Republican-written report, which Thompson described as, "... a lot of things strung together that paint a real ugly picture." The Democrats, led by Glenn, said the report "... does not support the conclusion that the China plan was aimed at, or affected, the 1996 presidential election."


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn was the vice chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, a subcommittee of the Committee on Governmental Affairs. When the Republican Party regained control of the Senate in 1996, Glenn became the ranking minority member on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations until he was succeeded by Carl Levin. During this time, the committee investigated issue such as fraud on the Internet, mortgage fraud, and day trading of securities.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn's father spent his retirement money battling cancer, and would have lost his house if Glenn had not intervened. His father-in-law also had expensive treatments for Parkinson's disease. These health and financial issues motivated him to request a seat on the Special Committee on Aging.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn was considered an expert in matters of science and technology due to his background. He was a supporter of continuing the B-1 bomber program, which he considered successful. This conflicted with President Carter's desire to fund the B-2 bomber program. Glenn did not fully support development of the B-2 because he had doubts about the feasibility of the stealth technology. He drafted a proposal to slow down the development of the B-2, which could have potentially saved money, but the measure was rejected.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn joined the Foreign Relations Committee in 1978. He became the chairman of the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, for which he traveled to Japan, Korea, the Republic of China, and the People's Republic of China. Glenn helped to pass the Taiwan Enabling Act of 1979. The same year, Glenn's stance on the SALT II treaty caused another dispute with President Carter. Due to the loss of radar listening posts in Iran, Glenn did not believe that the U.S. had the capability to monitor the Soviet Union accurately enough to verify compliance with the treaty. During the launching ceremony for the , he spoke about his doubts about verifying treaty compliance. First Lady Rosalynn Carter also spoke at the event, during which she criticized Glenn for speaking publicly about the issue. The Senate never ratified the treaty, in part because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Glenn served on the committee until 1985, when he traded it for the Armed Services Committee.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn became chairman of the Manpower Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee in 1987. He introduced legislation such as increasing pay and benefits for American troops in the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War. He served as chairman until 1993, becoming chairman of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Readiness and Defense Infrastructure.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn was one of the Keating Five—the U.S. Senators involved with the savings and loan crisis—after he accepted a $200,000 campaign contribution from Lincoln Savings and Loan Association head Charles Keating. During the crisis, the senators were accused of delaying the seizure of Keating's S&L, which cost taxpayers an additional $2 billion. The combination of perceived political pressure and Keating's monetary contributions to the senators led to an investigation.


title: John Glenn

text: The Ethics Committee's outside counsel, Robert Bennett, wanted to eliminate Republican senator John McCain and Glenn from the investigation. The Democrats did not want to exclude McCain, as he was the only Republican being investigated, which means they could not excuse Glenn from the investigation either. McCain and Glenn were reprimanded the least of the five, as the Senate commission found that they had exercised "poor judgment". The GOP focused on Glenn's "poor judgement" rather than what Glenn saw as complete exoneration. GOP chairman Robert Bennett said, "John Glenn misjudged Charles Keating. He also misjudged the tolerance of Ohio's taxpayers, who are left to foot the bill of nearly $2 billion." After the Senate's report, Glenn said, "They so firmly put this thing to bed ... there isn't much there to fuss with. I didn't do anything wrong." In his autobiography, Glenn wrote, "outside of people close to me dying, these hearings were the low point of my life." The case cost him $520,000 in legal fees. The association of his name with the scandal made Republicans hopeful that he could be defeated in the 1992 campaign, but Glenn defeated Lieutenant Governor Mike DeWine to retain his seat.


title: John Glenn

text: On February 20, 1997, which was the 35th anniversary of his Friendship 7 flight, Glenn announced that his retirement from the Senate would occur at the end of his term in January 1999. Glenn retired because of his age, saying "... There is still no cure for the common birthday".


title: John Glenn

text: After the Space Shuttle "Challenger" disaster in 1986, Glenn criticized putting a "lay person in space for the purpose of gaining public support . . . while the shuttle is still in its embryonic stage". He supported flying research scientists. In 1995, Glenn read "Space Physiology and Medicine", a book written by NASA doctors. He realized that many changes that occur to physical attributes during space flight, such as loss of bone and muscle mass and blood plasma, are the same as changes that occur due to aging. Glenn thought NASA should send an older person on a shuttle mission, and that it should be him. Starting in 1995, he began lobbying NASA director Dan Goldin for the mission. Goldin said he would consider it if there was a scientific reason, and if Glenn could pass the same physical examination the younger astronauts took. Glenn performed research on the subject, and passed the physical examination. On January 16, 1998, NASA Administrator Dan Goldin announced that Glenn would be part of the STS-95 crew; this made him, at age 77, the oldest person to fly in space at that time.


title: John Glenn

text: NASA and the National Institute of Aging (NIA) planned to use Glenn as a test subject for research, with biometrics taken before, during and after his flight. Some experiments (in circadian rhythms, for example) compared him with the younger crew members. In addition to these tests, he was in charge of the flight's photography and videography. Glenn returned to space on the Space Shuttle on October 29, 1998, as a payload specialist on Space Shuttle "Discovery". Shortly before the flight, researchers disqualified Glenn from one of the flight's two major human experiments (on the effect of melatonin) due to undisclosed medical reasons; he participated in experiments on sleep monitoring and protein use. On November 6, President Bill Clinton sent a congratulatory email to Glenn aboard the "Discovery". This is often cited as the first email sent by a sitting U.S. president, but records exist of emails being sent by President Clinton several years earlier.


title: John Glenn

text: His participation in the nine-day mission was criticized by some members of the space community as a favor granted by Clinton; John Pike, director of the Federation of American Scientists' space-policy project, said: "If he was a normal person, he would acknowledge he's a great American hero and that he should get to fly on the shuttle for free ... He's too modest for that, and so he's got to have this medical research reason. It's got nothing to do with medicine".


title: John Glenn

text: In a 2012 interview, Glenn said he regretted that NASA did not continue its research on aging by sending additional elderly people into space. After STS-95 returned safely, its crew received a ticker-tape parade. On October 15, 1998, NASA Road 1 (the main route to the Johnson Space Center) was temporarily renamed John Glenn Parkway for several months. Glenn was awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal in 1998 for flying on STS-95. In 2001, Glenn opposed sending Dennis Tito, the world's first space tourist, to the International Space Station because Tito's trip had no scientific purpose.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn and Annie had two children—John David and Carolyn Ann—and two grandchildren, and remained married for 73 years until his death.


title: John Glenn

text: A Freemason, Glenn was a member of Concord Lodge No. 688 in New Concord, Ohio. He received all his degrees in full in a Mason at Sight ceremony from the Grand Master of Ohio in 1978, 14 years after petitioning his lodge. In 1999, Glenn became a 33rd-degree Scottish Rite Mason in the Valley of Cincinnati (NMJ). As an adult, he was honored as part of the DeMolay Legion of Honor by DeMolay International, a Masonic youth organization for boys.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn was an ordained elder of the Presbyterian Church. His religious faith began before he became an astronaut, and was reinforced after he traveled in space. "To look out at this kind of creation and not believe in God is to me impossible," said Glenn after his second (and final) space voyage. He saw no contradiction between belief in God and the knowledge that evolution is "a fact" and believed evolution should be taught in schools: "I don't see that I'm any less religious that I can appreciate the fact that science just records that we change with evolution and time, and that's a fact. It doesn't mean it's less wondrous and it doesn't mean that there can't be some power greater than any of us that has been behind and is behind whatever is going on."


title: John Glenn

text: On August 9, 2019, flight records unsealed as part of Virginia Louise Giuffre's defamation suit against convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell revealed Glenn to have flown aboard a private plane of convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. On November 30, 2021, Epstein's personal pilot Larry Visoski testified in Maxwell's 2021 sex trafficking trial that he had recalled flying Glenn on one of Epstein's private planes. However, Visoski claimed to have never seen sexual activity nor any indication that such activity had taken place.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn was an honorary member of the International Academy of Astronautics and a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Marine Corps Aviation Association, Order of Daedalians, National Space Club board of trustees, National Space Society board of governors, International Association of Holiday Inns, Ohio Democratic Party, State Democratic Executive Committee, Franklin County (Ohio) Democratic Party and the 10th District (Ohio) Democratic Action Club. In 2001 he guest-starred as himself on the American television sitcom "Frasier".


title: John Glenn

text: On September 5, 2009, John and Annie Glenn dotted the "i" in Ohio State University's Script Ohio marching band performance during the Ohio State–Navy football-game halftime show, which is normally reserved for veteran band members. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the "Friendship 7" flight on February 20, 2012, he had an unexpected opportunity to speak with the orbiting crew of the International Space Station when he was onstage with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden at Ohio State University. On April 19, 2012, Glenn participated in the ceremonial transfer of the retired Space Shuttle "Discovery" from NASA to the Smithsonian Institution for permanent display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. He used the occasion to criticize the "unfortunate" decision to end the Space Shuttle program, saying that grounding the shuttles delayed research.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn was in good health for most of his life. He retained a private pilot's license until 2011 when he was 90. In June 2014, Glenn underwent successful heart valve replacement surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. In early December 2016, he was hospitalized at the James Cancer Hospital of Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. According to a family source, Glenn had been in declining health, and his condition was grave; his wife and their children and grandchildren were at the hospital.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn died on December 8, 2016, at the OSU Wexner Medical Center; he was 95 years old. No cause of death was disclosed. After his death, his body lay in state at the Ohio Statehouse. There was a memorial service at Mershon Auditorium at Ohio State University. Another memorial service was performed at Kennedy Space Center near the Heroes and Legends building. His body was interred at Arlington National Cemetery on April 6, 2017. At the time of his death, Glenn was the last surviving member of the Mercury Seven.


title: John Glenn

text: The "Military Times" reported that William Zwicharowski, a senior mortuary official at Dover Air Force Base, had offered to let visiting inspectors view Glenn's remains, sparking an official investigation. Zwicharowski has denied the remains were disrespected. At the conclusion of the investigation, officials said the remains were not disrespected as inspectors did not accept Zwicharowski's offer, and that Zwicharowski's actions were improper. No administrative action was taken as he had retired.


title: John Glenn

text: President Barack Obama said that Glenn, "the first American to orbit the Earth, reminded us that with courage and a spirit of discovery there's no limit to the heights we can reach together". Tributes were also paid by Vice President (and future President) Joe Biden, President-elect Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.


title: John Glenn

text: The phrase "Godspeed, John Glenn", which fellow Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter had used to hail Glenn's launch into space, became a social-media hashtag: #GodspeedJohnGlenn. Former and current astronauts added tributes; so did NASA Administrator and former shuttle astronaut Charles Bolden, who wrote: "John Glenn's legacy is one of risk and accomplishment, of history created and duty to country carried out under great pressure with the whole world watching." President Obama ordered flags to be flown at half-staff until Glenn's burial. On April 5, 2017, President Donald Trump issued presidential proclamation , titled "Honoring the Memory of John Glenn".


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn was awarded the John J. Montgomery Award in 1963. Glenn received National Geographic Society's Hubbard Medal in 1962. Glenn, along with 37 other space race astronauts, received the Ambassador of Space Exploration Award in 2006. He was also awarded the General Thomas D. White National Defense Award, and the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation. In 1964, Glenn received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 2004, he received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution, and was awarded the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Theodore Roosevelt Award for 2008.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn earned the Navy's astronaut wings and the Marine Corps' Astronaut Medal. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2011 and was among the first group of astronauts to be granted the distinction. In 2012, President Barack Obama presented Glenn with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Glenn was the seventh astronaut to receive this distinction. The Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom are considered the two most prestigious awards that can be bestowed on a civilian. The Society of Experimental Test Pilots awarded Glenn the Iven C. Kincheloe award in 1963, and he was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 1968, National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1976, the International Space Hall of Fame in 1977, and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1990. In 2000, he received the U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for public service by an elected or appointed official, one of the annual Jefferson Awards.


title: John Glenn

text: In 1961, Glenn received an honorary LL.D from Muskingum University, the college he attended before joining the military in World War II. He also received honorary doctorates from Nihon University in Tokyo; Wagner College in Staten Island, New York; Ohio Northern University; Williams College; and Brown University. In 1998 he helped found the John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy at Ohio State University to encourage public service. The institute merged with OSU's School of Public Policy and Management to become the John Glenn School of Public Affairs. He held an adjunct professorship at the school. In February 2015, it was announced that it would become the John Glenn College of Public Affairs in April.


title: John Glenn

text: The Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in Cleveland is named after him, and the Senator John Glenn Highway runs along a stretch of I-480 in Ohio across from the Glenn Research Center. Colonel Glenn Highway (which passes Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Wright State University near Dayton, Ohio), John Glenn High School in his hometown of New Concord, Elwood-John H. Glenn High School in the hamlet of Elwood, Town of Huntington, Long Island, New York, and the former Col. John Glenn Elementary in Seven Hills, Ohio, were also named for him. Colonel Glenn Road in Little Rock, Arkansas, was named for him in 1962. High schools in Westland and Bay City, Michigan; Walkerton, Indiana; and Norwalk, California bear Glenn's name. The fireboat "John H. Glenn Jr.", operated by the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department and protecting sections of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers which run through Washington, D.C., was named for him, as was , a mobile landing platform delivered to the U.S. Navy on March 12, 2014. In June 2016, the Port Columbus International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, was renamed John Glenn Columbus International Airport. Glenn and his family attended the ceremony, during which he spoke about how visiting the airport as a child had kindled his interest in flying. On September 12, 2016, Blue Origin announced the New Glenn, a rocket. Orbital ATK named the Cygnus space capsule used in the NASA CRS OA-7 mission to the international space station "S.S. "John Glenn"" in his honor. The mission successfully lifted off on April 16, 2017.


title: John Glenn

text: Glenn's public life and legacy began when he received his first ticker-tape parade for breaking the transcontinental airspeed record. As a senator, he used his military background to write legislation to reduce nuclear proliferation. He also focused on reducing government waste. Buzz Aldrin wrote that Glenn's "Friendship 7" flight, "... helped to galvanize the country's will and resolution to surmount significant technical challenges of human spaceflight."


title: John Glenn

text: President Barack Obama said, "With John's passing, our nation has lost an icon and Michelle and I have lost a friend. John spent his life breaking barriers, from defending our freedom as a decorated Marine Corps fighter pilot in World War II and Korea, to setting a transcontinental speed record, to becoming, at age 77, the oldest human to touch the stars." Obama issued a presidential proclamation on December 9, 2016, ordering the US flag to be flown at half-staff in Glenn's memory. NASA administrator Charles Bolden said: "Senator Glenn's legacy is one of risk and accomplishment, of history created and duty to country carried out under great pressure with the whole world watching".


title: 1

text: 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of "unit length" is a line segment of length 1. In conventions of sign where zero is considered neither positive nor negative, 1 is the first and smallest positive integer. It is also sometimes considered the first of the infinite sequence of natural numbers, followed by 2, although by other definitions 1 is the second natural number, following 0.


title: 1

text: The fundamental mathematical property of 1 is to be a multiplicative identity, meaning that any number multiplied by 1 equals the same number. Most if not all properties of 1 can be deduced from this. In advanced mathematics, a multiplicative identity is often denoted 1, even if it is not a number. 1 is by convention not considered a prime number; this was not universally accepted until the mid-20th century. Additionally, 1 is the smallest possible difference between two distinct natural numbers.


title: 1

text: The unique mathematical properties of the number have led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sports. It commonly denotes the first, leading, or top thing in a group.


title: 1

text: It comes from the English word "an", which comes from the Proto-Germanic root . The Proto-Germanic root comes from the Proto-Indo-European root "*oi-no-".


title: 1

text: Compare the Proto-Germanic root to Old Frisian "an", Gothic "ains", Danish "en", Dutch "een", German "eins" and Old Norse "einn".


title: 1

text: Compare the Proto-Indo-European root "*oi-no-" (which means "one, single") to Greek "oinos" (which means "ace" on dice), Latin "unus" (one), Old Persian , Old Church Slavonic "-inu" and "ino-", Lithuanian "vienas", Old Irish "oin" and Breton "un" (one).


title: 1

text: One, sometimes referred to as unity, is the first non-zero natural number. It is thus the integer after zero.


title: 1

text: Any number multiplied by one remains that number, as one is the identity for multiplication. As a result, 1 is its own factorial, its own square and square root, its own cube and cube root, and so on. One is also the result of the empty product, as any number multiplied by one is itself. It is also the only natural number that is neither composite nor prime with respect to division, but is instead considered a unit (meaning of ring theory).


title: 1

text: The glyph used today in the Western world to represent the number 1, a vertical line, often with a serif at the top and sometimes a short horizontal line at the bottom, traces its roots back to the Brahmic script of ancient India, where it was a simple vertical line. It was transmitted to Europe via the Maghreb and Andalusia during the Middle Ages, through scholarly works written in Arabic.


title: 1

text: In some countries, the serif at the top is sometimes extended into a long upstroke, sometimes as long as the vertical line, which can lead to confusion with the glyph used for seven in other countries. In styles in which the digit 1 is written with a long upstroke, the digit 7 is often written with a horizontal stroke through the vertical line, to disambiguate them. Styles that do not use the long upstroke on digit 1 usually do not use the horizontal stroke through the vertical of the digit 7 either.


title: 1

text: While the shape of the character for the digit 1 has an ascender in most modern typefaces, in typefaces with text figures, the glyph usually is of x-height, as, for example, in .


title: 1

text: Many older typewriters lack a separate key for "1", using the lowercase letter "l" or uppercase "I" instead. It is possible to find cases when the uppercase "J" is used, though it may be for decorative purposes. In some typefaces, different glyphs are used for I and 1, but the numeral 1 resembles a small caps version of I, with parallel serifs at top and bottom, with the capital I being full-height.


title: 1

text: Formalizations of the natural numbers have their own representations of 1. In the Peano axioms, 1 is the successor of 0. In "Principia Mathematica", it is defined as the set of all singletons (sets with one element), and in the Von Neumann cardinal assignment of natural numbers, it is defined as the set {0}.


title: 1

text: In a multiplicative group or monoid, the identity element is sometimes denoted 1, but "e" (from the German "Einheit", "unity") is also traditional. However, 1 is especially common for the multiplicative identity of a ring, i.e., when an addition and 0 are also present. When such a ring has characteristic "n" not equal to 0, the element called 1 has the property that (where this 0 is the additive identity of the ring). Important examples are finite fields.


title: 1

text: By definition, 1 is the magnitude, absolute value, or norm of a unit complex number, unit vector, and a unit matrix (more usually called an identity matrix). Note that the term "unit matrix" is sometimes used to mean something quite different.


title: 1

text: In number theory, 1 is the value of Legendre's constant, which was introduced in 1808 by Adrien-Marie Legendre in expressing the asymptotic behavior of the prime-counting function. Legendre's constant was originally conjectured to be approximately 1.08366, but was proven to equal exactly 1 in 1899.


title: 1

text: Tallying is often referred to as "base 1", since only one mark – the tally itself – is needed. This is more formally referred to as a unary numeral system. Unlike base 2 or base 10, this is not a positional notation.


title: 1

text: Since the base 1 exponential function (1) always equals 1, its inverse does not exist (which would be called the logarithm base 1 if it did exist).


title: 1

text: There are two ways to write the real number 1 as a recurring decimal: as 1.000..., and as 0.999... 1 is the first figurate number of every kind, such as triangular number, pentagonal number and centered hexagonal number, to name just a few.


title: 1

text: In many mathematical and engineering problems, numeric values are typically "normalized" to fall within the unit interval from 0 to 1, where 1 usually represents the maximum possible value in the range of parameters. Likewise, vectors are often normalized into unit vectors (i.e., vectors of magnitude one), because these often have more desirable properties. Functions, too, are often normalized by the condition that they have integral one, maximum value one, or square integral one, depending on the application.


title: 1

text: Because of the multiplicative identity, if "f"("x") is a multiplicative function, then "f"(1) must be equal to 1.


title: 1

text: It is also the first and second number in the Fibonacci sequence (0 being the zeroth) and is the first number in many other mathematical sequences.


title: 1

text: The definition of a field requires that 1 must not be equal to 0. Thus, there are no fields of characteristic 1. Nevertheless, abstract algebra can consider the field with one element, which is not a singleton and is not a set at all.


title: 1

text: 1 is by convention neither a prime number nor a composite number, but a unit (meaning of ring theory) like −1 and, in the Gaussian integers, "i" and −"i".


title: 1

text: The fundamental theorem of arithmetic guarantees unique factorization over the integers only up to units. For example, , but if units are included, is also equal to, say, among infinitely many similar "factorizations".


title: 1

text: 1 appears to meet the naïve definition of a prime number, being evenly divisible only by 1 and itself (also 1). As such, some mathematicians considered it a prime number as late as the middle of the 20th century, but mathematical consensus has generally and since then universally been to exclude it for a variety of reasons (such as complicating the fundamental theorem of arithmetic and other theorems related to prime numbers).


title: 1

text: 1 is the only positive integer divisible by exactly one positive integer, whereas prime numbers are divisible by exactly two positive integers, composite numbers are divisible by more than two positive integers, and zero is divisible by all positive integers.


title: 1

text: In the philosophy of Plotinus (and that of other neoplatonists), The One is the ultimate reality and source of all existence. Philo of Alexandria (20 BC – AD 50) regarded the number one as God's number, and the basis for all numbers ("De Allegoriis Legum," ii.12 [i.66]).


title: 1

text: The Neopythagorean philosopher Nicomachus of Gerasa affirmed that one is not a number, but the source of number. He also believed the number two is the embodiment of the origin of otherness. His number theory was recovered by Boethius in his Latin translation of Nicomachus's treatise "Introduction to Arithmetic".


title: 1

text: In many professional sports, the number 1 is assigned to the player who is first or leading in some respect, or otherwise important; the number is printed on his sports uniform or equipment. This is the pitcher in baseball, the goalkeeper in association football (soccer), the starting fullback in most of rugby league, the starting loosehead prop in rugby union and the previous year's world champion in Formula One. 1 may be the lowest possible player number, like in the American–Canadian National Hockey League (NHL) since the 1990s or in American football.


title: Joel Osteen

text: Joel Scott Osteen (born March 5, 1963) is an American lay preacher, televangelist, businessman and author based in Houston, Texas. Known for his weekly televised services and several best-selling books, Osteen is one of the more prominent figures associated with prosperity theology.


title: Joel Osteen

text: Osteen was born in Houston, Texas, and is one of six children of John Osteen and Dolores ("Dodie") Pilgrim. His father, a former Southern Baptist pastor, founded Lakewood Church (of which Osteen is the current senior pastor) in the back of an old feed store. He graduated from Humble High School, a public high school in the city of Humble, Texas, in 1981, and attended Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he studied radio and television communications but did not graduate; he did not receive a degree from a divinity school. In 1982, he returned to Houston, founded Lakewood's television program, and produced his father's televised sermons for 17 years until January 1999, when his father died unexpectedly of a heart attack.


title: Joel Osteen

text: On January 17, 1999, Osteen preached his first sermon. On October 3, 1999, he was installed as the new senior pastor of Lakewood Church. In 2003, Lakewood Church acquired the Compaq Center, former home of the NBA Houston Rockets and the AHL Houston Aeros and renovated it. According to Osteen in 2008, Lakewood Church's weekly service TV program was viewed in more than 100 countries. Lakewood Church estimates that 7 million viewers per week watch the services.


title: Joel Osteen

text: Osteen was included on Barbara Walters's list of the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2006. Former presidential candidate John McCain described Osteen as his favorite inspirational author. The Osteen family attended Easter breakfast hosted by President Barack Obama at the White House in 2010.


title: Joel Osteen

text: Osteen's sermon preparation involves memorizing his remarks and listening to himself on tape. Osteen says he chooses to focus more on the goodness of God and on living an obedient life rather than on sin. He says that he tries to teach Biblical principles in a simple way, emphasizing the power of love and a positive attitude. When asked why he does not focus more on sin, the devil and hell in detail, Osteen stated in an interview with CBN News:


title: Joel Osteen

text: Since 2004, Osteen, along with his wife, have hosted Night of Hope events, as well as their annual stadium event called "America's Night of Hope", in the U.S. and around the world. The event incorporates contemporary Christian music and inspirational messages to reach the masses at the venue and others watching online. Osteen also hosted an event at his Lakewood Church in 2018, in collaboration with rapper Kanye West, called Kanye’s Sunday Service. As per media reports, the event was attended by 17,000 as well as joined by many people streaming online. He also held his Easter service during COVID-19 with Mariah Carey and Tyler Perry.


title: Joel Osteen

text: Osteen's first book, "", was released in October 2004, and reached the number 1 position on "The New York Times" Best Seller list.


title: Joel Osteen

text: He released his second book, titled "Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day", in October 2007. It also topped "The New York Times" Best Seller list and had a first printing of three million copies. Osteen has said that the book focuses more on relationships and not getting stuck where we are in life.


title: Joel Osteen

text: On April 4, 1987, Osteen married Victoria Osteen (née Iloff), who later would become co-pastor of Lakewood Church. They have a son and daughter. In 2002, his older siblings, Paul, Lisa, and Tamara, and his younger sister, April, were also involved in full-time ministry, and his half-brother Justin was doing missionary work.


title: Joel Osteen

text: Osteen lives with his family in a 17,000 square-foot mansion in River Oaks, with an estimated value of $10.5 million. Osteen says that as senior pastor, he draws no salary from the church, which has an annual budget of $70 million, and that he instead relies on income from book sales.


title: Joel Osteen

text: Osteen has generally avoided discussing or preaching about controversial issues such as gay marriage, abortion, and politics. Having gone on record saying homosexuality is "not God's best", he has stated he believes the church has a tendency to become overly focused on single issues (such as homosexuality) to the point of neglecting others. When asked if he thought God approves of homosexuality, Osteen said homosexuality is a sin according to his interpretation of Scripture, but said gay people are welcome in his church without judgment.


title: Joel Osteen

text: In an interview on Fox News in 2008 during the Republican Party presidential primary race, when discussing whether he thought that Mormons were Christians, Osteen indicated that he believed that they were. He further revealed that he had not studied the religion. In an interview in 2011, Osteen stated his support for Israel.


title: Joel Osteen

text: Osteen's sermons and writings are sometimes criticized for promoting prosperity theology, or the prosperity gospel, a belief that the reward of material gain is the will of God for all pious Christians.


title: Joel Osteen

text: On October 14, 2007, "60 Minutes" ran a 12-minute segment on Osteen, titled "Joel Osteen Answers His Critics", during which Reformed theologian Michael Horton told CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts that Osteen's message is heresy. Horton stated that the problem with Osteen's message is that it makes religion about us instead of about God.


title: Joel Osteen

text: Osteen is estimated to have a net worth of over $50 million, with his church taking in $43 million a year in collections.


title: Joel Osteen

text: During the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in August 2017, Osteen received significant criticism for not making Lakewood Church, a 606,000-square-foot, 16,000-seat former sports arena, available as an emergency shelter for those displaced by the storm. On August 27, posts from the church and a Lakewood Church associate pastor's social media accounts stated that the church was "inaccessible due to severe flooding," and associate pastor John Gray posted further, "If WE could get there WE WOULD OPEN THE DOORS." Lakewood spokesperson Don Iloff later described floodwaters as one foot from spilling over the facility's floodgate and surging into the building. He also stated that pictures showing Lakewood free of flooding were taken on Monday, after the flood waters had lowered.


title: Joel Osteen

text: Osteen disputed the claim that flood waters closed the church, saying "the church has been open from the beginning," and, "[w]e've always been open ... How this notion got started, that we're not a shelter and we're not taking people in is a false narrative." This contradicted his earlier statement that the church would open when other refugee centers were full. On the evening of August 28, it was announced by Lakewood that it would open at noon the next day as an available shelter to storm victims and emergency personnel, which it did.


title: Joel Osteen

text: On August 15, 2018, less than a year after Harvey struck, the City of Houston and Mayor Sylvester Turner proclaimed a day in honor of the assistance of Lakewood and Osteen in rebuilding efforts across the Houston area. It stated that Lakewood and its pastors had provided "assistance to more than 1,150 Houston-area families whose homes were damaged or destroyed by floodwaters" and bought "1.1 million dollars in building materials, furniture, appliances, and paid labor, as well as through the contribution of more than 2,500 volunteers".


title: Joel Osteen

text: In 2011, Osteen and Lakewood Church were sued by the band The American Dollar for copyright infringement. A judge in 2012 ruled in favor of Osteen, but gave The American Dollar leave to amend the case.


title: Batman (TV series)

text: Batman is an American live action television series, based on the DC Comics character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Burt Ward as Dick Grayson / Robin – two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City from a variety of archvillains. It is known for its camp style, upbeat theme music, and its intentionally humorous, simplistic morality (aimed at its largely teenage audience). This included championing the importance of using seat belts, doing homework, eating vegetables, and drinking milk. It was described by executive producer William Dozier as the only situation comedy on the air without a laugh track. The 120 episodes aired on the ABC network for three seasons from January 12, 1966, to March 14, 1968, twice weekly during the first two seasons, and weekly for the third. In 2016, television critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz ranked "Batman" as the 82nd greatest American television show of all time. A companion feature film was released in 1966 between the first and second seasons of the TV show.


title: Batman (TV series)

text: "Batman" held the record for the longest running live action superhero series in terms of episodes until "Smallville" in 2011.


title: Batman (TV series)

text: The series focuses on Batman and Robin as they defend Gotham City from its various criminals. Although the lives of their alter-egos, millionaire Bruce Wayne and his ward Dick Grayson are frequently shown, it is usually only briefly, in the context of their being called away on superhero business or in circumstances where they need to employ their public identities to assist in their crime-fighting. The "Dynamic Duo" typically comes to the aid of the Gotham City Police upon the latter being stumped by a supervillain, who was accompanied in his/her appearances by several henchmen and an attractive female companion. Throughout each episode, Batman and Robin follow a series of seemingly improbable clues (also known as "bat logic") to discover the supervillain's plan, then figure out how to thwart that plan and capture the criminal.


title: Batman (TV series)

text: For the first two seasons, "Batman" aired twice a week on consecutive nights. Every story is a two-parter, except for two three-parters featuring villainous team ups (the Joker and the Penguin, then the Penguin and Marsha, Queen of Diamonds) in the second season. The titles of each multi-part story usually rhyme. The third and final season, which aired one episode a week and introduced Yvonne Craig as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl, consist of self-contained stories. Each third season story ends with a teaser featuring the next episode's guest villain, except for the series finale. The cliffhangers between multiple-part stories consist of villains holding someone captive, usually Batman or Robin, with the captive(s) being threatened by death, serious injury, or another fate. These cliffhangers are resolved early in the follow-up episode with Batman and Robin getting themselves out of every trap.


title: Batman (TV series)

text: Ostensibly a crime series, the style of the show is intentionally campy and tongue-in-cheek. It exaggerates situations and plays them for laughs, though the characters take the absurd situations very seriously.


title: Batman (TV series)

text: According to Adam West's memoir, "Back to the Batcave", his first exposure to the series concept was through reading a sample script in which Batman enters a nightclub in his complete costume and requests a booth near the wall, as he "shouldn't wish to attract attention". It was the scrupulously formal dialogue, and the way that Batman earnestly believed he could avoid standing out while wearing a skintight blue-and-grey costume, that convinced West of the character's comic potential.


title: Batman (TV series)

text: Producers did develop several tentative scripts for Two-Face, but never produced any of them. Clint Eastwood was allegedly considered for the role shortly before the series was cancelled.


title: Batman (TV series)

text: In the early 1960s, Ed Graham Productions optioned the television rights to the comic book "Batman" and planned a straightforward juvenile adventure show, much like "Adventures of Superman" and "The Lone Ranger", to air on CBS on Saturday mornings.