Edward H. White II, born on November 14, 1930, in San Antonio, Texas, was a U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, test pilot, and NASA astronaut. A graduate of West Point with a Master’s in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Michigan, he flew over 3,000 hours, mostly in jets. Selected by NASA in 1962, White made history as the first American to perform a spacewalk during the Gemini 4 mission in June 1965. He was later assigned to the first crewed Apollo mission (AS-204). Tragically, he died in the Apollo 1 spacecraft fire on January 27, 1967, at Kennedy Space Center. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and numerous other honors. Courtesy of NASA.