martha ackman spoke extensively with these women and interviewed chuck yeager, john glenn, scott carpenter and others at nasa and in the white house, with firsthand knowledge of the program. it provocative tribute to those extraordinary women, the mercury 13 is an unforgettable story of determination, resilience and inextinguishable hope. we are greatly indebted to martha for all the hard work tos story and for compelling writing which makes this book a fascinating read. please join me in welcoming martha ackman. >> thank you. thank you very much. it's a real privilege to be able to share the story of these accomplished women pilots, but it's an even greater treat to be able to do it at the odyssey bookshop, the absolute cultural heartbeat of our community here, so joan, thank you very much for inviting me, and as i look around at this room of so many friends and neighbors, many of whom have been with this story for a very long time, since i began, i kind of look at these faces and begin to say when it comes to the mercury 13, that's the mercury 14 and 15, and these people know the story a

martha ackmann spoke extensively with these women and interviewed chuck yeager, john glenn and others at the white house with firsthand knowledge of the program. a provocative tribute to those extraordinary women. the mercury 13 is an unforgotable story of resilience, inextinguishable hope. we're greatly indebted to martha ackmann for the hard work in telling this story and her compelling writing which makes this book a fascinating read. please join me in welcoming martha ackmann. [ applause ] >> thank you very much. it's a real privilege to share the story of these accomplished women's pilot but it's a greater tribute to do it at the book shop, the cultural heartbeat of our community. joan, thank you very much for inviting me. as i look around this room at so many friends and neighbors, many of whom have been with this story for a very long time since i began, i kind of look at these faces and say when it comes to "the mercury 13," that's the mercury 14 and 15. these people know the story as well as i do. i thank you very much for being here. as joan said, this is the story of 13 acc

as johnson knew, president kennedy announced on the very day john glenn orbited the earth that he was establishing a commission on the status of women. in an executive order posted of all government agencies, including nasa, the president made it clear, women are entitled to quality of opportunity for employment in government and industry. >> johnson looking above his head noticed there were four allegorical frescoes depicting human ambition. all for were women dressed in impressive robes staring down at him. many minority groups are asking for attention from nasa, the vice president told cobb. they wanted to be astronauts, too. if the united states allowed women in space, then blacks, mexicans, chinese and other minorities would want to fly, too. cobb listened politely, looking trim in her tailored dress with three strands of pearls around her neck. what's wrong with minorities serving as astronauts if they were qualified. johnson did not answer her question. she continued. if the vice president were proposing that only citizens who were in the majority should be launched into space,

on february 20, 1962, 10 months after yuri gagarin made history, an american, john glenn, orbited the: roger, zero-g, and i feel fine. the successes kept coming. the first manned gemini launch was in early 1965. in june 1965, ed white exited his capsule 135 miles above earth to become the first american to walk in space. the pictures from the gemini missions are breathtaking, but the boots white wore certainly look very different from chris's father's. white floated around for about 20 minutes, and when mission control called him inside, his only response was, "this is fun." white reluctantly ended his space walk, saying, "it's the saddest moment of my life." i received an e-mail from the history detectives office, and they're telling me that the westinghouse archives were partially lost in the mid-1990s. i'm not even sure how this contraption might have worked, so i'm headed to carnegie mellon engineering school to meet with dr. edward furlani, a research professor from the university at buffalo. ed has written a textbook on magnetic materials and devices. hi, ed. hi, elyse. nice to

john glenn's three outers -- orbits around the earth. space was inspiring a nation to dream about tomorrow. it was inspiring innovation. steve jobs and bill gates were a 14 and 13 -- i got it written here, let me -- 13 and 14 when we landed on the moon. i submit to you that in spite of the moon voyage being driven with military motives, that the return on that investment is huge economically, and i'm not talking about spinoffs. i could, but i'm not. i love spinoffs. we love spinoffs, okay. there's great spinoffs from nasa, and among them is the capacity to perform lasik surgery accurately and inexpensively. lasik predates nasa, but it was expensive and didn't always work. the algorithms and laser guidance that enabled the space shuttle to dock with the space station accurately without bumping and having to try it four times, that got ported to lasik. how many of you had lasik surgery? wow, only one person in the whole place? [laughter] she's not wearing glasses. and, you know, of course, tang predates nasa, but it became a beverage of ch

. >> john glenn orbiting the earth. >> t minus 9 minutes and 45 seconds. >> and james meredith segregating >> the town of oxford is an armed camp following riots of the reg strigz of the first negro in the university's 118 year history. >> reporter: those are great events in the history books for decades. what's hard to believe is how many of the cultural institutions that kicked off in 1962 are still with us today. 1962 was the year of the beatles. bob dylan. ♪let's go >> reporter: and the beach boys released their first record. 1962 was the year of the first wal-mart and the first kmart. it was the year the rolling stones played their first stones. the warhol painted a campbell soup can, and johnny carson took over the tonight show. >> >> reporter: johnnie is gone, but every late night talk show host cop eps his style. >> published in 19 skoo, the book that kicked off the modern environmental movement. >> they should not be calmed insecticides, but bioicides. >> reporter: in 1962, james bond, 007. talk about durable. bond has outlasted the soviet union,

senator john glenn. what coach b., what senator mikulski has done is one of the strongest -- as one of the strongest advocates in this country, in this senate first space program and science, technology, research and development, has been particularly helpful to me as i fight for the kind of work that nasa glenn does in cleveland, ohio, and i'm so appreciative of senator mikulski for that. mr. president, i ask for unanimous consent to separate the rest of my -- my remaining words. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: i rise today to talk about a new record that has been set. it has nothing to do with the number of votes the highway bill garnered last week in the senate. it has nothing to do with length of service of senator mikulski. this year for the first time in history, one state, one state has four teams in the sweet 16 of the ncaa men's division one basketball tournament. that's the state of ohio. special congratulations to highway state university in columbus, the university of cin

senator mikulski and i had the wonderful pleasure of traveling under the guidance of a trip led by john glenn, a world-famous man then and now. it was a wonderful trip for a couple of new senators. we traveled and the iron curtain was down and it was down hard, and we went to poland on this codel. and i can remember, we had the opportunity to meet with members of the solidarity movement. we met in secret with them in a secret location. and senator glenn talked, senator stevens, a senior member of the senate at the time, spoke. and i said, i'd like to hear from senator mikulski. now, mr. president, i -- i am not articulate enough to explain that presentation that she made, extemporaneously. this powerful woman stood and talked about her heritage and her religion and what that meant to the people of america and what it should mean to the people of poland. it was truly -- and i've told her this personally over the years on several occasions to remind her -- one of the most heartwarming, strong speeches i've ever been present to listen to. she spoke to the people there assembled -- there weren't

john. gun shows have been jaut outlawed here since 1999. and now a couple from glennenging that law and those like it in the bay area as unconstitutional. they have allowed to set up shop in clara county for gun shows. but counties like alameda, san mateo and marin have laws that don't allow the sale or purchase of guns on government property. which means you can't hold them at what some people consider the most desirable places like ferry grounds. this according to the merck. the couple is asking the ninth circuit court of appeals to strike down these regulations. and they're specifically targeting alameda county. the outcome could determine the fate of gun shows in california and other western states. they're going to be watching this closely. the ninth circuit court of appeals panel is expected to hear the case this afternoon at 2:30. reporting live in pleasanton, christie smith. >>> the end is near for guaranteed admission. administrators abandoned plans to toughen standards this fall for students who have been historically given preference. overcrowding in classe

glenn and katia bringing in aerospace engineering and architecture. >> that's still going. we're doing that. and we're sharing it with as many people as we can. we trained john. i think that's a real important thing. >> mr. gary, my husband and i have a personal connection with this piece of land. we have gardened there for 30 years. >> wow. >> it's been our community garden known as independence garden. we have batted around, you know, what would eisenhower want? and i think the first thing we came up with, a putt putt golf course. he, of course, loved golfing as anybody as old as we are can remember that he was a very avid golfer. this, of course, is unlikely. but we would like to please that you put as much green and openness because, as i say, as gardeners for 30 years, we have people from all over the world come and say, oh, what a wonderful spot this is. i have this. i can show you later. what a wonderful spot this is, this garden, this oasis in the middle of washington. and i think eisenhower would love that, so i hope that you will provide some green. we know that we're history. we realize that. >> we have our green guys here. joe, why don't you get

state senator john pride more pride more as a co-sponsor of the bill and wisconsin state house that want to label thing all mothers in the state as child abusers now here's the bill's author glenn grothman explaining the reasoning behind this bill. i think most of those mothers would friend they could do a better job if they were married to the father of their children. oh man there are just so of anything that i would like to say in response to that but let's move on to the next part because that bill in and of itself is already old news think robin has been getting a lot of negative publicity over the bill which has been thrust in the national spotlight but looks like co-sponsored on pride more didn't want to miss out on the just listen to his response when it was consonant porter asked if he thought that women in abusive relationships should stay for the sake of the children. of the. house. hard to get catch that pride more things that women who are being abused should really find a reason they get back to why they got married in the first place i should be a really helpful coping tool for all the women and men so forget them to have spouses who choose to be put crap out of

i'm a great reader of newspaper and in 1997 i saw a little clip in a paper that said john glenn was getting his second chance to go into space, this time aboard the shuttle, and about paragraph 8 it says and geri cobb is not too happy about that, and like most people, i said who's geri cobb, and i grew up in a space family. my father worked on the space program, and i thought i knew something about space, and especially project mercury, so it came as a great astonishment to me that i didn't know. so i began to find out. yes. >> how many women from mercury 123 are still around and how many were you able to interview, and were they open to talking about it? >> they were open to talk about it and it was painful for them to relive it. of the 13, 11 are still alive and i met all of them, spoke wial the ones who passed away, i spoke to their family members. i think it's fairt for all of them, this experience was a very important center of their lives, so they were most eager to be able to tell the story, that they feel like much of it has been largely forgotten, but it was difficult for them to r