The History of Amelia Earhart
One of the most famous female aviators, Amelia Earhart flew to fame with a multitude of speed and distance flight records that caught the attention of the world. While her legacy would have endured regardless, it was her disappearance that became one of the biggest mysteries of the 20th century.
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Early Years
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Born in Kansas in 1897, Amelia Earhart attended high school in Chicago, volunteered as a nurse at a Toronto military hospital during World War I, and spent one semester as a pre-med student at New York's Columbia University before moving to Los Angeles in 1920. It was there, only 11 years after the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, that Earhart first soared through the sky in an airplane. Thrilled with the experience, she signed on for flying lessons and purchased her first aircraft.
Limelight
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Chasing her dream through 1922, she established an unofficial women's high-altitude record of 14,000 feet. Upon moving to Boston in 1928, Earhart received an exciting offer: the opportunity to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic as a passenger. The successful flight brought her international fame and the chance to earn a living from her experience in the air. She began writing and lecturing, traveling the United States.
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Celebrity
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Earhart's exploits were just getting underway. She helped organize the first transcontinental air race for females, placing third in a 1929 dash from Santa Monica to Cleveland. A few months later, Earhart and 98 other women organized "The Ninety-Nines," an organization of female pilots for business and social initiatives. She became the group's first president.
Bigger Challeneges
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Eager to prove her prowess as a flyer, Earhart decided to follow the wings of Charles Lindbergh, who, nearly five years earlier, had become the first human to fly solo across the Atlantic. On May 21, 1932, Earhart became an instant household name as the first female to complete the solo journey from North America to Europe. She returned home to a ticker-tape parade in New York City, received the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, and basked in similar honors from other countries and organizations.
Earhart's pursuit of more challenges and records continued. In 1935, she became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific, from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. Buoyed by success, she began planning a flight around the world.
Around the World
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The excursion was designed to be a 29,000 mile trip following the equator. The first leg, from Oakland to Hawaii, was successful but, three days later, she crashed the plane upon takeoff from the Hawaiian Islands. Earhart was uninjured but the plane was severely damaged and had to be shipped to California for repairs. On June 1, 1937, she began the global attempt again, this time flying an easterly route from Miami with a navigator named Fred Noonan. After 22,000 miles, they reached New Guinea on June 29.
Disappearance
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The next stop was to be Howland Island, a tiny patch of land in the Pacific less than one mile wide and two miles long. Earhart and Noonan never arrived. A nearby U.S. Coast Guard ship received one transmission from Earhart, implying everything to be fine, but the two were never heard from again. After an exhaustive search, they were declared lost at sea on July 19, 1937. A variety of theories sprouted over the years to explain the disappearance. The most logical is the most widely accepted: Earhart and Noonan simply lost radio communication, were unable to find Howland Island, ran out of fuel and crashed into the vast Pacific Ocean.
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