Īccording to family custom, Earhart was named after her two grandmothers, Amelia Josephine Harres and Mary Wells Patton. Alfred Otis had not initially favored the marriage and was not satisfied with Edwin's progress as a lawyer. Earhart was the second child of the marriage after an infant was stillborn in August 1896. She was born in the home of her maternal grandfather, Alfred Gideon Otis (1827–1912), who was a former federal judge, the president of the Atchison Savings Bank and a leading citizen in the town. Įarhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas, the daughter of Samuel 'Edwin' Stanton Earhart (1867–1930) and Amelia 'Amy' ( née Otis 1869–1962). She is ranked ninth on Flying's list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation.

She also has a minor planet, planetary corona, and newly-discovered lunar crater named after her. She now has several commemorative memorials named in her honor around the United States, including an urban park, an airport, a residence hall, a museum, a research foundation, a bridge, a cargo ship, an earth-fill dam, four schools, a hotel, a playhouse, a library, multiple roads, and more. ĭecades after her presumed death, Earhart was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1968 and the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1973. Investigations and significant public interest in their disappearance still continue over 80 years later. Nearly one year and six months after she and Noonan disappeared, Earhart was officially declared dead. It is generally presumed that she and Noonan died somewhere in the Pacific during the circumnavigation, just three weeks prior to her fortieth birthday. The two were last seen in Lae, New Guinea, on July 2, 1937, on the last land stop before Howland Island and one of their final legs of the flight. Known as one of the most inspirational American figures in aviation from the late 1920s throughout the 1930s, Earhart's legacy is often compared to the early aeronautical career of pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh, as well as to figures like First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for their close friendship and lasting impact on the issue of women's causes from that period.ĭuring an attempt at becoming the first woman to complete a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10-E Electra, Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. She was also a member of the National Woman's Party and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1935, Earhart became a visiting faculty member at Purdue University as an advisor to aeronautical engineering and a career counselor to female students.

She received the United States Distinguished Flying Cross for this accomplishment. In 1932, piloting a Lockheed Vega 5B, Earhart made a nonstop solo transatlantic flight, becoming the first woman to achieve such a feat. In 1928, Earhart became the first female passenger to cross the Atlantic by airplane (accompanying pilot Wilmer Stultz), for which she achieved celebrity status. īorn and raised in Atchison, Kansas, and later in Des Moines, Iowa, Earhart developed a passion for adventure at a young age, steadily gaining flying experience from her twenties. She set many other records, was one of the first aviators to promote commercial air travel, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Amelia Mary Earhart ( / ˈ ɛər h ɑːr t/ AIR-hart, born Jdisappeared Jdeclared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer.

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