President Barack Obama Honored 16 Personalities from different part of civil life. In a ceremony at the White House, President Obama added 16 names to that distinguished list
Recipients of the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom included sports champions and scientists, musicians and civil rights leaders, activists and journalists, media moguls and public servants.
On this occasion President Obama said.“These are the men and women who in their extraordinary lives remind us all of the beauty of the human spirit, the values that define us as Americans, the potential that lives inside of all of us,”
The Presidential Medal of Freedom, established 50 years ago by President John F. Kennedy, is the nation’s highest civilian honor. The medal has been presented to more than 500 individuals who have made especially “meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
Recipients of the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom are :
[1]Ernie Banks
Baseball players of all time
[2]Ben Bradlee
Newsmen of his generation.
[3]Bill Clinton
42nd President of the United States
[4]Daniel Inouye (posthumous)
Lifelong public servant.
[5]Daniel Kahneman
Pioneering scholar of psychology.
[6]Richard Lugar
Senate for more than 30 years.
[7]Loretta Lynn
country music legend.
[8]Mario Molina
Chemist and environmental scientist.
[9]Sally Ride (posthumous)
First American female astronaut to travel to space.
[10]Bayard Rustin (posthumous)
unyielding activist for civil rights,.
[11]Arturo Sandoval
Celebrated jazz trumpeter, pianist, and composer.
[12]Dean Smith
Head coach of the University of North Carolina basketball team
[13]Gloria Steinem
writer and activist for women’s equality.
[14]Cordy Tindell “C.T.” Vivian
Minister, author, and organizer. .
[15]Patricia Wald
Appellate judges of her generation
[16]Oprah Winfrey
Broadcast journalists.
Photo Caption
President Barack Obama awards the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Oprah Winfrey during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 20, 2013.