Word: medals
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Owens, who famously said the secret to his success was to "let my feet spend as little time on the ground as possible," helped usher in a fleet of impossibly swift African-American sprinters. Among then was Bob (Bullet) Hayes, who won the gold medal in the 100-m sprint at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and recorded what some observers consider the top time ever achieved by a human with an 8.6 split in the 4 x 100-m relay. (Relay marks are faster than regular sprints because runners receive the baton while in motion, enabling them to accelerate...
...country built on a system of checks and balances, it's intriguing to have an award that allows the President to reveal some personal preferences. Since February 1963, when John F. Kennedy's Executive Order made bestowing the Medal of Freedom a presidential privilege, the highest civilian honor in the nation has offered unique insight into the élite group of people who inspire our Commanders in Chief. Officially, the award, which President Obama is scheduled to present to 16 people on Aug. 12, is for those who have contributed "to the security or national interests of the United States...
...order, the award, which was originally established by President Harry Truman in 1945, was given mostly to non-American allies who had helped in the war effort. JFK chose people from all walks of life but was assassinated before he could present his first round of medals. President Lyndon Johnson handed out the awards to 31 people in JFK's stead and honored his predecessor with a posthumous medal as well...
Richard Nixon gave astronaut Neil Armstrong the honor in 1969. Gerald Ford placed the medal around the necks of composer Irving Berlin, Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio and even LBJ's wife, Lady Bird Johnson, an early reach across the political aisle. In 1997, President Bill Clinton was commended in some quarters for awarding the honor to Bob Dole, whom he had just defeated in the 1996 election. But many Presidents keep it within their political party. During his tenure, Jimmy Carter awarded the Medal of Freedom to liberals like anthropologist Margaret Mead, Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and biologist Rachel...
After the war, Scheungraber spent decades living a quiet, unassuming life at his home in Ottobrunn, on the outskirts of Munich. He ran a furniture shop, sat on the town council and even won a medal for outstanding citizenship. In 2006 he was sentenced in absentia to life in prison by an Italian military tribunal, but he wasn't deported and never served any time. After German prosecutors got onto the case, Scheungraber went on trial in Munich in September 2008. "The past caught up with the defendant," said prosecutor Hans-Joachim Lutz after the verdict was delivered on Tuesday...