Earhart, Amelia

Earhart, Amelia (âr'härt) [key], 1897–1937, American aviator, b. Atchison, Kans. She was the first woman to cross the Atlantic by airplane (1928) and the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic (1932). She was the first person to fly alone from Honolulu to California (1935). In 1937, she attempted with a copilot, Frederick J. Noonan, to fly around the world, but her plane was lost on the flight between New Guinea and Howland Island. In 1992, a search party reported finding remnants of Earhart's plane on Nikumaroro (formerly Gardner Island), Kiribati, but their claims were disputed by people who worked on Earhart's plane, and her fate remains a mystery. In 1964, Geraldine Mock was the first woman to successfully complete Earhart's round-the-world route. Earhart was married to G. P. Putnam (1887–1950) in 1931.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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