Born July 18, 1921,
New Concord, Ohio

John Glenn’s spaceflight around Earth made him a hero. At the time of Glenn’s flight, space was a new battleground in the cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States. The Soviet Union’s advantage at the beginning of the space race, as it was called, put pressure on the United States to launch a man into Earth orbit. Mechanical difficulties during Glenn’s flight made his accomplishment even more heroic.

War hero

Named after his father, who was a fireman for the B&O Railroad, John H. Glenn, Jr., was born on July 18, 1921, in New Concord, a small town in southeastern Ohio. Glenn’s modest background and formative experiences parallel those of another Ohioan, Neil Armstrong (see entry), thus giving this midwestern state a unique position in the annals of spaceflight...