Reaching the gold standard

By Rachel Clarke
BBC News Online in Washington

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is set to join an eclectic but elite group after US politicians decided to award him the Congressional Gold Medal.

Rosa Parks was honoured 44 years after breaking segregation laws

But the medal itself is not yet ready and will not be presented to Mr Blair when he addresses a joint session of Congress on Thursday as originally planned.

The delay is far from unique in the history of the medal - George Washington, the very first recipient, had to wait 14 years before he got his metal proof of the accolade.

What is now the United States had not even declared independence from Britain when nationalist leaders approved the medal for Washington on 25 March 1776 for his "wise and spirited conduct" in forcing the British to evacuate Boston.

Orders for that award and others for heroes of the independence were sent to Paris but were held up amid revolutions in America and France and their aftermath. The third US President, Thomas Jefferson, was eventually able to give Washington the medal on 21 March 1790.

Excellence honoured

The Congressional Gold Medal was reserved for war heroes until the middle of the 19th Century when its scope was extended with the recognition of the kindness and humanity shown by British naval surgeon Frederick Rose to American sailors struck down with yellow fever.

Innovators were first included from 1867, with the award of the medal to Cyrus W Field who was praised for his work in the laying of the transatlantic cable.

John Wayne's medal praises him simply as "American"

But it was in the 20th Century that excellence in all fields - from athletics to aviation, films to diplomacy - were deemed worthy of the highest civilian honour in the United States.

Individual acts which captured the nation's hearts were noted - such as the heroism of 11-year-old Roland Boucher of Burlington in Vermont who saved the lives of four children who had fallen through ice on a lake in 1941.

Young Roland received his medal two years later. But the award has also been used decades after events to honour those whose acts were perhaps not fully appreciated at the time.

Long waits

The "Navajo Code Talkers" - native Americans who developed their tribal language into an unbreakable code during World War II - were not recognised by Congress until 2000.

Their work was credited with "saving lives of countless American soldiers and the success of the engagements of Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa".

Joe Louis' boxing wins are credited with boosting morale across the US

Rosa Parks, the "First Lady of Civil Rights" who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, was approved for a medal in 1999 for her "quiet dignity" which "ignited the most significant social movement in the history of the United States", four decades earlier.

Among sporting heroes, sprinter Jesse Owens and boxer Joe Louis were recognised not simply for their achievement on the track and in the ring but for the broader impact they had.

Owens, who challenged Adolf Hitler's ideals of Aryan supremacy by winning sprints at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, was noted in 1988 for his speed but also for "humanitarian contributions to public service, civil rights and international goodwill".

"Brown Bomber" Lewis defended his world heavyweight title a record 25 times in the 1930s and 1940s and was praised by Congress in 1982 for "accomplishments which did so much to bolster the spirit of the American people during one of the most crucial times in American history".

Foreigners noted

Military leaders continue to be recognised - Generals Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell were honoured within days of the victory over Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War.

Arts achievements of Walt Disney, Frank Sinatra, George and Ira Gershwin and Andrew Wyeth were deemed worthy of the medal as were the contributions to religion by Ruth and Billy Graham and the innovations by the Wright Brothers and Thomas Edison.

Britain's wartime leader Winston Churchill is the only UK prime minister to be honoured before Mr Blair and other foreign recipients include the Pope, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.

Each medal is minted individually with its own words and design.

The inscription for actor John Wayne, acknowledged in 1979 for his "distinguished career" and "service to the nation", says simply: "John Wayne, American".