Tag Archives: women’s history

“Earhart, Amelia: (1897-1937) U.S. aviator, the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Born in Atchison, Kansas, she worked as a military nurse in Canada during World War I and later as a social worker in Boston. In 1928 she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a plane, though as a passenger. In 1932 she accomplished the flight alone, becoming the first woman and the second person to do so. In 1935, she became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California. In 1937, she set out with a navigator, Fred Noonan, to fly around the world; they had completed over two-thirds of the distance when her plane disappeared without a trace in the Pacific Ocean. Speculation about her fate has continued to the present.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.