Glenn, John Herschell, Jr. (1921- ), United States senator and former astronaut, born in Cambridge, Ohio. In 1939 he entered Muskingum College, in Ohio, and left in his junior year to take pre-flight training in the Naval Aviation Cadet Program. As a pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps, he flew 149 combat missions in World War II and the Korean War. In 1957 Glenn became the first person to make a non-stop supersonic (greater than the speed of sound) flight across the United States, setting a speed record of 3 hr 23 min 8.4 sec. On February 20, 1962, Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth in space, in the Project Mercury Gemini capsule Friendship 7. The three-orbit flight covered about 130,000 km (about 81,000 mi) in 4 hr 55 min.

Glenn retired from the Marine Corps in 1965 and became a business executive and consultant to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. His many awards and honours include the Distinguished Flying Cross, which he was awarded five times, and the Air Medal with 18 clusters. In 1974 Glenn was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Ohio. He was reelected in 1980, 1986, and 1992. Glenn unsuccessfully contended for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination. In the 105th Congress (1997-1999), Glenn served on the Special Intelligence Committee. He was ranking member of the Governmental Affairs Committee. Glenn, a military veteran, also served on the Armed Services Committee from 1985 to 1998. Glenn announced in 1997 that he would retire from the Senate at the end of his term in 1999.

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