Astronaut Sally Ride, Sen. Daniel Inouye among those chosen for presidential medal of freedom

US President Barack Obama on Thursday named 16 people who will receive the medal of freedom, among them astronaut Sally Ride and former senator Daniel Inouye. 

The award is the highest civilian honor in the United States, according to the Associated Press. Originally a military distinction, President John F. Kennedy expanded it to include civilians in a 1963 executive order. 

"The Presidential Medal of Freedom goes to men and women who have dedicated their own lives to enriching ours," Obama said in a statement on Thursday.

"This year's honorees have been blessed with extraordinary talent, but what sets them apart is their gift for sharing that talent with the world. It will be my honor to present them with a token of our nation's gratitude."

Ride, the first US woman in space, and Inouye, who received a Medal of Honor for his service in the Second World War and went on to became the first Japanese-American in Congress, will both be awarded posthumously, as will Bayard Rustin, an advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Other recipients include Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, former Washington Post editor Bill Bradlee, veteran lawmaker Richard Lugar, psychologist Daniel Kahneman of "Thinking Fast and Slow," jazz musician Arturo Sandoval, feminist icon Gloria Steinem, former University of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith, and civil rights leader and pastor Cordy Tindell "C.T." Vivian, according to the White House. 

See previous years' recipients here.