Mar. 1, 1962 - New York poured out its affection for Lieut. Col. John H. Glenn Jr. today with bands, banners, and a blizzard of paper so thick at times that only specks of buildings could be seen through it. The first American to orbit the Earth said plainly that he had never seen anything like the display. Colonel Glenn, his six fellow astronauts, their wives and children and parents, and leaders of the nation’s space enterprise heard shouts of praise from their landing at La Guardia Airport to their luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria. “Certainly overwhelming,” was the judgment of Col. Glenn. “I don’t know who’s going to clean up the city,” he said later, “but it was a wonderful parade, wasn’t it?” Police Commissioner Michael J. Murphy told Mayor Wagner that 4 million people had watched the motorcade. The fact that two hours before the Broadway parade an airliner had crashed in Jamaica Bay with the loss of 95 lives did not appear to quell the enthusiasm of the public reception.
