Amelia Earhart's Biography

Who was Amelia Earhart?

Amelia Earhart was born on 24 July 1897 in Atchison, Kansas.

She worked as a nurse in a military hospital in Canada during WWI, and later became a social worker. But right from her first lesson in 1921 it would be flying that would be her main passion.

Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly the Atlantic leaving Newfoundland on 17 June 1928 and arriving in Wales 21 hours later. One of the people behind the adventure was book publisher George Putnam, whom Amelia Earhart married in 1931.

A year later, in 1932 Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. She set off on May 20 from Newfoundland, aiming for Paris, but landed in Londonderry in Ireland.

On climbing out of her plane Earhart asked a passer-by where she was. "In Gallagher's field", came the reply. "Have you come far?"... "Just from America", Amelia Earhart replied.

In 1935 the woman who owned the field, Mrs Gallagher spoke to the BBC about Amelia Earhart's arrival that day.

In 1935 Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

In 1937 she attempted a round the world flight but her plane disappeared in the Pacific. An informative account of her disappearance, as well as many aspects of Earhart's life and some inspiring quotes can be found on the Amelia Earhart Official Site.

Amelia Earhart's autobiography, Last Flight, was published posthumously in 1938.

In 2016, it was reported that researchers with the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery had found similarities between Amelia Earhart and the partial skeleton of a castaway discovered on an uninhabited Pacific island in 1940.

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