Harriet Quimby Dies in Crash

On July 1, 1912, Harriet Quimby, the first American woman to earn a pilot's license, was killed in a crash at the Boston-Harvard Aviation Meet at Squantum, Massachusetts. A journalist by profession, Quimby had taken up flying in 1911 and quickly became one of the most celebrated aviators of her day.

While flying over Dorchester Bay, her Bleriot monoplane suddenly pitched forward, throwing Quimby and her passenger from the aircraft to their deaths in the waters and tidal flats below. Neither was secured by a restraint, a common shortcoming of aircraft of the period, and the cause of the sudden dive was never firmly established.

Only months earlier, in April 1912, Quimby had become the first woman to pilot an aircraft across the English Channel, a feat overshadowed at the time by the sinking of the Titanic. Her death came at the height of her fame, but she remains a pioneering figure who helped open the field of aviation to women.