Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished on July 2, 1937, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Here are some key events leading up to that fateful day:
1897 (July 24) - Amelia Earhart born in Atchison, Kansas
1908 - Amelia moved to Des Moines, Iowa, where she saw her first airplane
1913 - Amelia moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, with her family
1914 - the Earhart family moved to Springfield, Missouri, and then to Chicago; her father moved to Kansas
1916 - Amelia Earhart graduated from high school in Chicago and moved back to Kansas with her mother and sister to live with her father
1917 - Amelia Earhart began college at Ogontz School, Pennsylvania
1918 - Amelia Earhart volunteered as a nurse in a military hospital in Canada
1919 (spring) - Amelia Earhart took an auto repair class -- for girls only -- in Massachusetts, where she moved to live with her mother and sister
1919 (fall) - Amelia Earhart began pre-med program at Columbia University in New York
1920 - Amelia Earhart left Columbia
1920 - after moving to California, Amelia Earhart took her first flight in an airplane
1921 (January 3) - Amelia Earhart began flying lessons
1921 (July) - Amelia Earhart bought her first plane
1921 (December 15) - Amelia Earhart earned a National Aernautic Association license
1922 (October 22) - Amelia Earhart set an unofficial altitude record for women, 14,000 feet -- the first of her records
1923 (May 16) - Amelia Earhart earned a pilot’s license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale -- the sixteenth woman to be issued such a license
1924 - Amelia Earhart sold her aircraft and bought an automobile, driving cross-country in June with her mother to move to Massachusetts
1924 (September) - Earhart returned to Columbia University
1924 (May) - Earhart again left Columbia
1926-1927 - Amelia Earhart worked at Denison House, a Boston settlement house
1928 (June 17-18) - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic (she was a passenger on this flight with pilot Wilmer Stultz and co-pilot/mechanic Louis Gordon). She met George Putnam, one of the sponsors of the flight, a member of the Putnam publishing family, and himself a publicist.
1928 (September-October 15) - Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across North America
1928 (September-) - Amelia Earhart embarked on lecture tour organized by George Putnam
1929 - Amelia Earhart published her first book, 20 Hours and 40 Minutes
1929 (November 2) - helped found the Ninety-Nines, an organization for women pilots
1929 - 1930 - Amelia Earhart worked for Transcontinental Air transport (TWA) and the Pennsylvania Railroad
1930 (July) - Amelia Earhart set a women's speed recordof 181.18 mph
1930 (September) - Amelia Earhart's father, Edwin Earhart, died of cancer
1930 (October) - Amelia Earhart received her air transport license
1931 (February 7) - Amelia Earhart married George Palmer Putnam
1931 (May 29 - June 22) - Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly across the content in an autogiro
1932 - wrote The Fun of It
1932 (May 20-21) - Amelia Earhart flew solo across Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland, in 14 hours 56 minutes -- the first woman and the second person to fly solo across the Atlantic, the first person to cross the Atlantic twice non-stop, and also setting the record for the longest distance flown by a woman and for the fastest flight across the Atlantic
1932 (August) - Amelia Earhart set a record for the fastest women's non-stop transcontinental flight, 19 hours, 5 minutes -- flying from Los Angeles to Newark
1933 - Amelia Earhart was a guest at the White House of Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt
1933 (July) - Amelia Earhart bested her own transcontinental flying time, this record at 17:07:30
1935 (January 11-12) - Amelia Earhart flew from Hawaii to California, becoming the first person to fly that route solo (17:07) -- and the first civilian pilot to use a two-way radio on a flight
1935 (April 19-20) - Amelia Earhart was the first to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City
1935 (May 8) - Amelia Earhart was the first to fly solo from Mexico City to Newark
1935 - Amelia Earhart became a consultant at Purdue University, focusing on aeronautic careers for women
