Amelia Earhart

1898- 1937

Aviator

Fabled American aviator Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison Kansas. Earhart had troubled childhood moving around a great deal. She graduated from Hyde Park High School in Chicago. After going to Columbia University for one year she moved to California to be with her family. In Long Beach on December 28, 1920, she visited an airfield with her father and for $10 convinced the pilot Frank Hawks to take her up, and from that moment she decided she wanted to fly. She was the first woman to obtain pilot's certification from the National Aeronautic Association. In 1932, she completed the first solo transatlantic flight by a woman.

She also made the first solo flight by a woman from Hawaii to California in 1935. Amelia Earhart's plane was lost somewhere in the Pacific in 1937 as she was attempting to circumnavigate the globe. The exact circumstances of her (presumed) crash are unknown.