WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama recognized 17 Americans with the nation’s highest civilian award Tuesday.

Those receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom were filmmaker Steven Spielberg; musicians Gloria and Emilio Estefan; singer James Taylor; composer Stephen Sondheim; violinist Itzhak Perlman; actress Barbra Streisand; baseball Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Yogi Berra; politicians Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, former Rep. Lee Hamilton from Indiana, and the late Rep. Shirley Chisholm from New York; veterans advocate Bonnie Carroll; NASA mathematician Katherine G. Johnson; and former chief of the Environmental Protection Agency William Ruckelshaus. Posthumous recipients include Indian tribal advocate Billy Frank Jr. and civil rights leader Minoru Yasui.