This timeline shows important events in the life of Katherine Johnson, who is remembered for calculating the paths of early American spaceflights. Read it from top to bottom to follow the events in order.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1918 | Johnson is born in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia |
| 1953 | Began working as a mathematician at the agency that later became NASA |
| 1961 | Calculated the flight path for the first American in space |
| 1962 | Checked the computer's numbers for John Glenn's orbit around Earth |
| 1969 | Helped calculate the path of the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon |
| 2015 | Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom |
| 2020 | Johnson dies |