John Herschel Glenn, Jr. was a U.S. Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman and U.S. Senator. Our Museum began with his vision and every day we strive to live up to the guiding principles he set forth: To Honor, Connect, Inspire and Educate. In honor of his birthday, we celebrate John Glenn’s dedication to our community, nation and Veterans.

Take a stroll down memory lane with these 5 Supersonic Facts:

Glenn, Jr. was born on July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio

John H. Glenn Sr. in his World War I uniform with Clara Sproat Glenn, taken at Camp Sheridan, Alabama, 1918

Baby picture of John Glenn sitting on a porch pointing his finger in the air, circa 1922

Snapshot of John Glenn, age 8, with sled outside his home in New Concord, Ohio.

The son of John Herschel Glenn, Sr., who worked for a plumbing firm, and Clara Teresa Glenn, 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 John, Jr.’s birth. At eight years old, he flew his first airplane with his father and from there, became fascinated by flight and built model airplanes from balsa wood kits.

Glenn was only a toddler when he met his future wife, Annie Castor

Annie Castor (Glenn) and John Glenn as teenagers, circa 1938

Wedding photograph of Annie Castor and John Glenn, 1943

John Glenn poses with his family in front of the F8U Crusader he flew in Project Bullet, his record breaking transcontinental flight, 1957

Glenn, Jr. was only a toddler when he met his future wife, Anna Margaret (Annie) Castor. The pair became high school sweethearts and continued dating through college. Castor and Glenn were married on April 6, 1943 and had two children — John David, born in 1945, and Carolyn Ann, born in 1947.

During World War II and the Korean War, Glenn flew 149 missions and received the Distinguished Flying Cross six times

Formal portrait of John Glenn in the uniform of a U.S. Navy air cadet, 1942

Photograph of John Glenn posing in front of his F4U Corsair in the Marshall Islands during World War II, 1944.

John Glenn poses in the cockpit of his “MiG Mad Marine” F-86 Sabre while assigned to the 25th Interceptor Squadron of the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War, 1953

Colonel John Glenn joined the American war effort in 1942 by entering the Naval Aviation Cadet Program. The following year, he completed his studies and was deployed as a U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot in the Pacific front of World War II. He flew 59 combat missions in the South Pacific. During the Korean War, Glenn continued his service in the U.S. Marine Corps as a fighter pilot on 63 missions and as an exchange pilot with the Air Force on 27 missions.

Glenn was one of our nation’s first astronauts

Photograph of John Glenn sitting beside the Friendship 7 spacecraft during training for his Project Mercury MA-6 mission, circa 1961

Candid portriat of astronaut John Glenn taken while on the U.S.S. Noa following his orbital space flight, February 20, 1962.

Astronauts Scott Carpenter, Don Slayton, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Alan Shepard, and Walt Schirra on Grand Turk Island following Glenn’s Friendship 7 space flight, February 22, 1962

He was one of the Mercury Seven, military test pilots selected in 1959 as the nation’s first NASA 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.

At age 77, Glenn flew on Space Shuttle Discovery’s STS-95 mission, making him the oldest person to enter Earth’s orbit

Color formal portrait of Annie Glenn and John Glenn in his spacesuit as a crew member on the Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-95, 1998

Group protrait of the crew members of NASA mission STS-95 taken while in space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, 1998

John Glenn waves during the Cocoa Beach parade following the conclusion of NASA mission STS-95, 1998

On October 29, 1998, Glenn returned to space as a payload specialist on a nine-day mission. He participated in experiments that studied the similarities between the aging process and the body’s response to weightlessness.

“To me, there is no greater calling. If I can inspire young people to dedicate themselves to the good of mankind, I’ve accomplished something.”

John Glenn