Amelia Earhart

(From Kids InfoBits , a Thomson Gale digital resource)

Born:  July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas, United States
Died:  July, 1937

Occupation:  pilot, explorer
Family: Married George Palmer Putnam, 1931.

Amelia Earhart was a famous woman pilot in the 1920s and 1930s. She set many flying records. On her last flight, she disappeared and was never found. Her disappearance still is a mystery today.

Amelia Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1897. Unlike most girls, she liked to climb trees and hunt rats with a rifle. When Earhart was 20 years old, she visited an airfield. She decided she wanted to learn how to fly airplanes.

In 1918 flying was a new and sometimes dangerous way to travel. Most pilots were men. That did not stop Earhart. She took flying lessons and bought a small plane for $2,000.

Earhart immediately began setting flying records. First she flew 14,000 feet (22,526 kilometers) high to set a new altitude, or height, record. In 1928 she was the first woman passenger on a flight across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1932 she became the first woman to fly her own plane across the Atlantic. She was also the first person to fly alone from Hawaii to California. She set speed records for women and men. Earhart became famous around the world.

In June 1937 Earhart left on a flight to circle the earth. No one had tried this before. One month later she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. Some people think she crashed. Others think the Japanese captured her as a U.S. spy. The U.S. Coast Guard searched for her for weeks. No trace of her or her plane was ever found.