Katherine Johnson (1918–2020)

Born on 26 August 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Katherine Johnson was a mathematician and physicist who calculated the trajectories for some of NASA’s most historic missions. Johnson “graduated from high school at 14 and college at 18 at a time when African Americans often did not go beyond the eighth grade,” former NASA administrator Charles Bolden wrote in a 2016 tribute . Johnson did graduate work in mathematics at West Virginia University. She had embarked on a career as an elementary career teacher when the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (which later became NASA) recruited her to compute the trajectories and orbits of spacecraft . Johnson calculated the trajectory of Alan Shepard’s mission in which he became the first American in space. In the early 1960s, when NASA switched to the fully computerized calculation of orbital mechanics, Johnson verified the calculations. She performed calculations for John Glenn’s orbit around Earth and the Apollo 11 mission that landed on the Moon. In November 2015 Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She, along with other black women mathematicians at NASA, were featured in the book and movie Hidden Figures . Johnson died in February 2020 at age 101. (Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Editor’s note: This post has been updated.

Date in History: 26 August 1918