Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas. After attending six high schools in four years, she graduated from Hyde Park High School in Chicago in June 1915. In 1918 she was working as a Red Cross nurse's aide in Toronto. There she attended her first flying exhibition. In December 1920 she took her first airplane ride.

Earhart learned to fly by taking flying lessons. She worked as a telephone company clerk and a photographer to pay for them. Her first flying instructor was Anita "Neta" Snook, who gave her lessons in a Curtiss Jenny. Earhart soloed in 1921 and bought her first airplane, a Kinner Airster.

In 1922 Earhart set her first aviation record, an unofficial women's altitude record of 14,000 feet. In 1923 she received her pilot's license. She became the 16th woman to receive an official Fédération Aéronautique Internationale pilot license. In 1926 she joined the staff of Denison House, Boston's oldest settlement house, as a social worker.

In 1928 Earhart was the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air. She rode as a passenger on the Friendship while two men flew the plane. In August 1929 she finished third in the first air race across the United States for women. She was the first president of the Ninety-Nines, a group of women pilots. Of 285 licensed U.S. women pilots, 99 became charter members.

In 1930 Earhart bought a Lockheed 5B Vega, NR-7952. She called her bright red Vega the "Little Red Bus." That year she set the women's flying speed record of 181.18 mph and earned her transport pilot's license. In 1931 she was the first woman to fly an autogiro and set an altitude record in it. She set many flying records.

You may have heard that Earhart was the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic. That is not right. In 1932 she became the first woman, and the second person, to do it. In May she flew from Newfoundland across the Atlantic to Northern Ireland in a Vega. Ice formed on its wings. The flight made her an international hero.

In 1935 Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City. Her solo flight from Honolulu to Oakland began on January 11, 1935. She flew alone over the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii to California. In 1935 she also joined Purdue University as a counselor on careers for women.

In 1937 Earhart tried to fly around the world in a Lockheed Electra. The flight set off from Miami, Florida, on June 1, 1937. Fred Noonan was the navigator who flew with her. In July 1937 they left New Guinea heading for tiny Howland Island. The Coast Guard cutter Itasca was waiting there to support the flight.

Radio contact between Earhart's plane and the Itasca was lost on July 2, 1937. After the plane went missing, ships and planes searched for her. The official U.S. search ran from July 2 to July 18, 1937. It found no trace of the plane or its crew. As of November 2026 the Electra has not been found.

Words to know

• exhibition: a show
• altitude: height
• autogiro: flying machine
• navigator: route finder
• cutter: Coast Guard ship