On this day in 1962 Mercury astronaut John Glenn aboard Friendship 7 becames the first American to orbit the earth. John Glenn made three orbits in 4 hours and 55 minutes before splashing down near the Bahamas. John Glenn is still living- he’s 91 now. He would later become a United States Senator from Ohio and would go back up in space in 1998 at the age of 77 became the oldest person to go up into space. In April he and his wife Anne will have been married 70 years.