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Today in History: February 20, John Glenn becomes first American to orbit the Earth

Also on this date, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, upheld, 7-2, compulsory vaccination laws intended to protect the public’s health

A black and white photo of an astronaut being helped into a space capsule
US astronaut John Glenn and the Friendship 7 space capsule, in which he became the first American to orbit the earth in space. His three-orbit flight covered 130,000 kilometres in just under five hours. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
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Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Project Mercury’s Friendship 7 spacecraft, which circled the globe three times in a flight lasting 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23 seconds.

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