Alan B. Shepard, Jr.

This 1961 portrait of Alan B. Shepard by Bruce Stevenson hangs in the U.S. Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis Maryland

May 5: Freedom 7, manned Mercury spacecraft (No. 7) carrying Astronaut Alan B. Shepard, Jr. as pilot was launched from Cape Canaveral by Mercury-Redstone (MR—3) launch vehicle, to an altitude of 115.696 miles and a range of 302 miles. It was the first American manned space flight. Shepard demonstrated that man can control a vehicle during weightlessness and high G stresses, and significant scientific biomedical data were acquired. He reached a speed of 5,100 miles per hour and flight lasted 14.8 minutes.  -- NASA,  Aeronautical and Astronautical Events of 1961.

Shepard was a member of the Naval Academy Class of 1945.

 Bruce Stevenson '61