Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897. She was born in Atchison, Kansas. Earhart lived mostly with her grandparents, as her mother was in a constant battle with her father fighting an alcohol addiction and trying to make a stable living. Amelia and her sister, Muriel, had a lot of adventures as children to help them take their minds off their parental situations, such as, taking rides on Amelia Earhart’s sled. Amelia and her family were finally able to live together again when she was ten years old, but her father still couldn’t find financial stability. Earhart found interest in science and sports, but it was hard for her to make friends and learn with all the moving she had to do. In 1915, Earhart’s mother and father again split and she was moved to Chicago where she attended Hyde Park High School and took huge interest in chemistry. Because of her life experiences, she became very independent. Amelia visited her sister in Toronto after she had graduated high school. She saw many hurt soldiers from the effects of World War I. She decided to become a nurse for the Red Cross. She took a huge inspiration from the aviators she met. In 1919, Earhart decided to go to Columbia University and study medicine, she quit a year later.
In 1920, Earhart took a ten minute plane ride that changed her whole perspective on life. At that moment, she knew that was what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Earhart found a way to make the money for flying lessons from taking many jobs. Earhart took lessons from a female aviator named Anita Snook. Earhart did everything she could to look like a professional aviator. She cut her hair short like other aviators and slept in her leather jacket for three days to make it look worn.
In 1921, Earhart bought her first plane. It was a second-hand yellow biplane that she named “The Canary.” Earhart wanted to make a statement. On October 22, 1922, Earhart flew 14,000 feet. This was the world record for highest altitude in women pilots. On May 15, 1923, Earhart was the 16th woman to get a pilot’s license by the Federation Aeronautique. Up until this point, Earhart’s mother was providing the money for the family but by 1924, they had no money left. Earhart had to sell her plane and move to Boston. Again she tried to enroll in 1925, to Columbia University, but had to quit due to having limited finances. Amelia worked as a teacher then social worker. In 1927, Earhart got back into flying. She invested a little bit of money in the Dennison Airport in Massachusetts and wrote articles in the local newspaper that promoted flying.
1927, Earhart grew interest for a woman to fly across the Atlantic. In 1928, Earhart got a phone call for an offer to fly across the Atlantic. She said yes and went to New York to be interviewed by George P. Putnam. She was picked to be a passenger on the first transatlantic flight, it was said to be too dangerous to let a woman fly a flight that extreme. On June 17, 1928, Earhart left Trespassey Harbor, Newfoundland with her pilot Wilmer Stultz and co-pilot Louis E. Gordon in a plane named Friendship. It took over 20 hours to finally land in Burry Point, Wales, in the U.K. Earhart finally said she felt like she “was just baggage” she wanted to fly alone. Earhart’s flight was soon published as a book in 1928, called 20 Hrs., 40 Min. Earhart started to get promotions for her book from the help of Putnam, who she soon married in 1931. She started to contribute clothes that she made to a women’s fashion line. She was soon offered a position as associate editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, from that, she became a promoter for Transcontinental Air Transport and was a vice president of National Airways. Earhart didn’t want to have the celebrity status that she did. She wanted to be a proper respected aviator. She soon set out to North America in a solo flight. She came third in the first Santa Monica-to-Cleveland Woman’s Air Derby. In 1930, Earhart became the first president of the Ninety-Nines. In 1931, Earhart set a world record altitude of 18,415 feet.
Earhart wanted to be different from everyone else. She never panicked, but she wasn’t the smartest aviator. As technology advanced, Earhart stuck to her ways of flying by instinct. She had constant promotions and toured a lot. She never really had the time to improve her skills. She wanted her legacy to break the negative stereotypes that are said about women. Before Putnam and Earhart got married, they planned a solo flight across the Atlantic without telling anyone. On May 20, 1932, they left from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. The flight ran into difficulties as there were thick clouds and ice on the wings of the plane. After 12 hours, the plane had mechanical difficulties. They weren’t gonna make it all the way, so they landed in a pasture in Northern Ireland. Earhart was welcomed at the Hanworth Airfield in London by local residents on May 22, 1932. Her 15 hour flight made her the first woman to solo fly across the Atlantic. She received many honors because of this achievement.
She went from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California and became the first woman to fly across both the Atlantic and Pacific. In April 1935, Earhart flew solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City and then from Mexico City to New York. All between 1930-1935, Earhart set seven women’s speed and distance world records.
In 1935, Earhart wanted to be different and this is how she was going to do it, she was going to circle the world. She joined the faculty at Purdue University as a female career consultant, and technical advisor to the Department of Aeronautics. She got money from this to purchase the Lockheed Electra L-10E plane. She was going to be the first person to circle the equator. She got together her crew of three men, Captain Harry Manning, Fred Noonan, and Paul Mantz. They were all very experienced flyers. Their plan was to start the journey from Oakland, California to Hawaii, the across the Pacific to Australia, the cross India, to Africa, then to Florida and back to California. On March 17, 1937, they started their journey from Oakland and had few difficulties flying across the Pacific. They landed in Hawaii for repairs. They took off again three days later but Earhart lost control of the plane on the runway, it experienced severe damage and was shipped back to California to repair. To pay for the expensive repairs, they had to fundraise, Earhart was exhausted. Due to weather, the plane was finally fixed and they had to fly east. Two of the captains didn’t rejoin the journey. Noonan and Earhart took off from Oakland to Miami, Florida. They then flew to Central and South America on the way to Africa. They crossed the Indian Ocean and landed in New Guinea. They only had 7,000 miles left of their journey in which would be them crossing the Pacific. Their destination was to be Howland Island, an island between Hawaii and Australia. They would use Celestial navigation to keep them on course. They would also use maps, compass, and position of the sun to help them find Howland Island. They would get fuel from this island. Earhart and Noonan went from Lae on July 2, 1937, to Howland Island. They left behind radios with short wavelength frequencies to make room for fuel canisters. This was a huge misfortune. Due to the overcast weather, celestial navigation would have been difficult as well. They were also using inaccurate maps. These were unsolvable problems as radio communications were very poor that day. On the morning of July 3, 1937, Earhart reported that her fuel was running low and they couldn’t see the island. It was said that Earhart and Noonan thought they were running along the north, south line, but Noonan’s chart of Howland was off by five nautical miles. Earhart and Noonan were signalled to the island, but did not see it. What is said that happened is they ran out of fuel and crashed into sea. Some say that Earhart and Noonan flew without radio transmission and landed at Gardner Island where they would die. In 1991, a small piece of Earhart’s plane was found in a small island in the southwestern Pacific. Earhart’s legacy is celebrated on her birthday, July 24, as “Amelia Earhart Day.” To this day, no one knows the full story of what happened to Earhart and Noonan on July 3, 1937.