Presidential Medal of Freedom

Table of Contents

Introduction References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Mario Molina receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Paul Harvey receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom

David McCullough and George W. Bush

Read Next

Close up of a hand placing a ballot in a ballot box. Election vote voter voting

Have Any U.S. Presidents Decided Not to Run For a Second Term?

United States Presidential Election of 2012. Mitt Romney. Official portrait of President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, Dec. 6, 2012 after his reelection Nov. 6, 2012. Official portrait Obama

10 Democrats Who Made History

Queen Elizabeth II addresses at opening of Parliament. (Date unknown on photo, but may be 1958, the first time the opening of Parliament was filmed.)

All 119 References in “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” Explained

President Richard M. Nixon smiles and gives the victory sign as he boards the White House helicopter after his resignation on August 9, 1974 in Washington, D.C.

Timeline of the 1970s

Computer mapping, woman at early 1990s computer

Timeline of the 1990s

Discover

Abstract vector hi speed internet technology background

History of Technology Timeline

Coriander leaves, fresh green cilantro on wooden background, herbs

Why Does Cilantro Taste Like Soap to Some People?

Town of Sisimiut located on the coast of the Davis Strait on Kangerluarsunnguaq Bay, Greenland

The Largest Islands in the World

Aphrodite. Greek mythology. Sculpture. Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

12 Greek Gods and Goddesses

Shadow of a man holding large knife in his hand inside of some dark, spooky buiding

7 of History's Most Notorious Serial Killers

An ancient egyptian hieroglyphic painted carving showing the falcon headed god Horus seated on a throne and holding a golden fly whisk. Before him are the Pharoah Seti and the goddess Isis. Interior wall of the temple to Osiris at Abydos, Egypt.

11 Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. Engraving by Cosomo Colombini (d. 1812) after a Leonardo self portrait. Ca. 1500.

10 Famous Artworks by Leonardo da Vinci

Presidential Medal of Freedom: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Notable Honorees

Steven Spielberg • Bill Clinton • Bob Dylan • Bruce Springsteen • Hillary Clinton • John McCain • Steve Jobs • Muhammad Ali • Angela Merkel • Sidney Poitier • Betty Ford • John Wayne • Tiger Woods • Bill Russell • Robert De Niro • Rosalynn Carter • Bob Hope • Irving Kristol • Meryl Streep • Lionel Messi • Joe Biden • James Stewart • Frank Gehry • Eubie Blake • Tom Hanks • Ben Carson • Bill Gates • Jesse Jackson • Barbra Streisand • Oprah Winfrey • Charlton Heston • Aretha Franklin • Orrin Hatch • George Soros • Audrey Hepburn • Denzel Washington • Barbara Mikulski • John Glenn • Maya Angelou • Maya Lin • Neil Armstrong • George Mitchell • Elie Wiesel • Jens Stoltenberg • Stephen Sondheim • Ted Kennedy • Robert M. Gates • I.M. Pei • Danny Kaye • Margaret Murie • Gabby Giffords • Michael Jordan • John Paul Stevens • Desmond Tutu • Helen Hayes • Bono • George Shultz • Norman Ernest Borlaug • Rita Moreno • Julia Child • Rush Limbaugh • John Lewis • Billie Jean King • Anna Wintour • Toni Morrison • Jesse Owens • Yogi Berra • Harper Lee • Dean Smith • Isabel Allende • Katherine Johnson • Arnold Palmer • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar • Margaret Mead • Ralph Lauren • Daniel Inouye • Pat Summitt • Katie Ledecky • David Brinkley • Yo-Yo Ma • Margaret Chase Smith • Stephen Hawking • Willie Mays • Robert Kahn • Ellen DeGeneres • Gordon B. Hinckley • Magic Johnson • Mary Robinson • Andrew Wyeth • Madeleine Albright • Plácido Domingo • Simone Biles • James Baker • Stan Musial • Eudora Welty • Arthur Laffer • Melinda Gates • Jane Goodall • Sally Ride • Muhammad Yunus • David McCullough • Cicely Tyson • Jonas Salk • Sister Simone Campbell • R. Sargent Shriver • Clare Boothe Luce • Mariano Rivera • Chita Rivera • Tom Brokaw • Diana Ross • Dolores Huerta • Edward Brooke • Grace Hopper • Warren Buffett • Hank Aaron • Norman Vincent Peale • Gloria Steinem • Bob Dole • Donna Shalala • Michael DeBakey • Jack Kemp • Lane Kirkland • Daniel Kahneman • Fred Rogers • Johnny Carson • Juliette Gordon Low • Babe Didrikson Zaharias • Daniel Patrick Moynihan • Alan Page • Cesar Chavez • Marian Wright Edelman • Annika Sörenstam • Harvey Milk • Edmund Muskie • Andy Griffith • Margaret Hamilton • Ernie Banks • Pearl Bailey • Dorothy Height • Henry M. Jackson • Theodore Hesburgh • Robert Michel • Shirley Chisholm • Denton Cooley • Jacques Barzun • Jasper Johns • Wilma Mankiller • Eric Hoffer • Philip Charles Habib • Mario Molina • Benjamin L. Hooks • Diane Nash • Michelle Yeoh • Sylvia Mendez • Megan Rapinoe • Anthony Fauci • Ethel Kennedy • Norman Mineta • José Andrés • Gary S. Becker • James Taylor • Ben Bradlee • John Sweeney • Mstislav Rostropovich • Claude Pepper • Buck O’Neil • Red Blaik • Dan Gable • Ellen Ochoa • Eunice Kennedy Shriver • David Packard • Melvin Laird • Bob Cousy • Edgar Mitchell • John H. Johnson • Martha Raye • Michael J. Fox • Lyman Lemnitzer • Frederick Douglass Patterson • Esther Peterson • James Farmer • Fannie Lou Hamer • Robert Solow • Justin Dart, Jr. • Gary Player • Roger Staubach • William Safire • Mathilde Krim • Loretta Lynn • Kelly Johnson • Bayard Rustin • Louis L’Amour • Herblock • Lorne Michaels • Phil Donahue • Joan Ganz Cooney • Oliver Hill

Photos

Mario Molina receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Paul Harvey receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom

David McCullough and George W. Bush

See All Images →

Topics

United States Medal for Merit Padma Awards Bharat Ratna Templeton Prize Peabody Award Spingarn Medal George Cross Order of Lenin

Quiz

United States Historical Flag: Stars and Stripes 1863 to 1865

United States of America Quiz