Welcome to American National Biography Online
The life of a nation is told by the lives of its people
- Over 19,000 biographies of significant, influential or notorious figures from American history written by prominent scholars
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What's new
What's new: March 2020
This update features six new essays, lives spanning from the sixteenth century to the twenty-first. It includes a new essay on Tisquantum, the Native American interpreter and emissary referred to in the original ANB essay as Squanto; religious leader and Indian captive Esther Wheelwright; the radical artist Chris Burden; astronaut Eugene Cernan; and avant-garde fashion designer Rudi Gernreich.
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Eugene Cernan
Eugene Cernan (1934–2017) was the second American to walk in space and the first to circle the earth. On his next mission, in 1969, he piloted the Apollo 10 lunar module, coming within 50,000 feet of the Sea of Tranquility. All told, seventy three of the 566 hours Cernan logged in space were on the surface of the moon. His time included 22 hours of moonwalks, more than any other astronaut. In 1972, upon leaving the moon for the final time, and making him to this point the last person to walk on the moon, Cernan said, “We leave as we came, and God willing, we shall return with peace and hope for all mankind.”
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