Amelia Mary Earhart

Amelia Mary Earhart

Amelia Mary Earhart (/ˈɛərhɑrt/ air-hart; July 24, 1897 – disappeared 1937) was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She received the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for this record.She set many other records,wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots.Earhart joined the faculty of the Purdue University aviation department in 1935 as a visiting faculty member to counsel women on careers and help inspire others with her love for aviation. She was also a member of the National Woman's Party, and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.

During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life, career and disappearance continues to this day.

Amelia Mary Earhart, daughter of German American Samuel "Edwin" Stanton Earhart (born March 28, 1867) and Amelia "Amy" Otis Earhart (1869–1962), was born inAtchison, Kansas, in the home of her maternal grandfather, Alfred Gideon Otis (1827–1912), a former federal judge, president of the Atchison Savings Bank and a leading citizen in Atchison. Amelia was the second child of the marriage, after an infant stillborn in August 1896.Alfred Otis had not initially favored the marriage and was not satisfied with Edwin's progress as a lawyer.
Earhart was named, according to family custom, after her two grandmothers (Amelia Josephine Harres and Mary Wells Patton). From an early age Earhart, nicknamed "Meeley" (sometimes "Millie") was the ringleader while younger sister (two years her junior), Grace Muriel Earhart (1899–1998), nicknamed "Pidge," acted the dutiful follower. Both girls continued to answer to their childhood nicknames well into adulthood. Their upbringing was unconventional since Amy Earhart did not believe in molding her children into "nice little girls." Meanwhile their maternal grandmother disapproved of the "bloomers" worn by Amy's children and although Earhart liked the freedom they provided, she was aware other girls in the neighborhood did not wear them.

The two sisters, Amelia and Muriel (she went by her middle name from her teens on), remained with their grandparents in Atchison, while their parents moved into new, smaller quarters in Des Moines. During this period, Earhart received a form of home-schooling together with her sister, from her mother and a governess. She later recounted that she was "exceedingly fond of reading"and spent countless hours in the large family library. In 1909, when the family was finally reunited in Des Moines, the Earhart children were enrolled in public school for the first time with Amelia Earhart entering the seventh grade at the age of 12 years.

Amelia Earhart was a noted female aviator and the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. The Google doodle depicts Amelia Earhart on top of a stationary plane.

Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, USA on July 24, 1897. Her first experience around planes was a flying exhibition put on by a World War I "ace." The pilot overhead spotted Earhart and her friend, who were watching from an isolated clearing and dived at them. "I am sure he said to himself, 'Watch me make them scamper,'" she said. Earhart stood her ground as the aircraft came close. "I did not understand it at the time," she said, "but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by."

On December 28, 1920, she sat in a plane for the first time with her father - a ride that would change her life forever. After that 10-minute flying session, she become determined to learn flying.

After Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, on June 17, 1928, pilot Wilmer Stultz, copilot/ mechanic Louis Gordon and Amelia Earhart crossed the Atlantic as a team. Since she didn't do any flying, Earhart was determined to one day do the flying alone.

She got that chance on May 20, 1932, when she flew from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, USA to  Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland in 14 hours, 56 minutes, setting aviation history.

On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island while attempting to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe.