Celebrating Native American Heritage Month: Jerry Elliot High Eagle, Osage Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee

Jerry Elliott High Eagle, born in 1943 in Oklahoma City, was one of the first Native American employed at NASA.  His contributions as lead retrofire officer during the Apollo 13 disaster earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Although facing racial discrimination from the professors at University of Oklahoma, he received a degree in physics, being one of the first Native Americans to achieve such an accomplishment. He joined NASA as a flight mission operations engineer in 1966.  He was Program Staff Engineer during the Apollo-Soyuz Program.

He was the only Native American in mission control during Apollo 11's successful moon landing.  He was lead Retrofire Officer during the Apollo 13.  For his work on helping bring the astronauts home safely, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Richard Nixon.

His name "High Eagle" was given to him by tribal elders when he turned 41.

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In first episode airs 1968

After a one-off show which aired September 9, 1967, the response to Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In was granted its own series, the first episode of which aired January 22, 1968 - the same day as the Apollo 5 launch!

The show lasted for 6 seasons and starred almost everyone in entertainment, sports and politics.  Richard Nixon made an appearance during his campaign in 1968 (Hubert Humphrey declined), so many credit his deadpan delivery of "Sock it to me?" for helping him get elected President.

Besides Nixon, stars included Carol Burnett, the Bee Gees, John Wayne, Leonard Nimoy, Wilt Chamberlin, Joe Namath, William F. Buckley, the Monkees, Rev. Billy Graham, Agnes Moorehead, Bill Bixby, and Oral Roberts.

Only four of the regulars appeared in every single episode: Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Gary Owen and Ruth Buzzi, who won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in 1973.

Laugh-In won a Golden Globe for Best TV Show in 1969.  Arte Johnson won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1969 for Special Classification Achievements - Indiviuals (Variety Performances), while the show won for Outstanding Variety of Musical Series in 1968 and 1969.  It won awards throughout its 6 year run.

We look back on it now and wonder why we laughed so much back then at the humor which seems so ho-hum and un-funny now.  Maybe back then we had more to laugh about.

Nixon Announces Space Shuttle Development 1972

In an amazing move, President Nixon announced the development  of the space shuttle program, January 5, 1972.  Scientists realized that the huge expense of a one-time use of a space vehicle was prohibitive, so the idea was to come up with a "reusable" spacecraft.  It would give the U.S. better access to space and give man a working presence in orbit.

Read his announcement here:

https://history.nasa.gov/stsnixon.htm