1936 (July) - Amelia Earhart received a new Lockhead twin engine plane, an Electra 10E, financed by Purdue University
1936 - Amelia Earhart began planning for a flight around the world along the equator, using her new (and unfamiliar) Electra
1937 (March) - Amelia Earhart, with navigator Fred Noonan, began her flight around the world along the equator from east to west, flying from Oakland, California, to Hawaii in 15 hours, 47 minutes, a new speed record for that route
1937 (March 20) - ground-looped when taking off in Hawaii headed for Howland Island for a refueling stop; Amelia Earhart returned the plane to the Lockheed factory in California for repairs
May 21 - Amelia Earhart took off from California for Florida
June 1 - Earhart and Noonan took off from Miami, Florida, heading west to east, reversing the planned direction for the around-the-world flight
- along the way, Amelia Earhart sent letters to her husband with notes about the trip, which Putnam arranged to have Gimbels publish as a way of helping to finance the trip- first flight from the Red Sea to India
- at Calcutta, according to Earhart's report, Noonan was drunk
- at Bandoing, between stops in Singapore and Australia, Amelia Earhart made some repairs on the instruments as she recovered from a bout of dysentery
- at Australia, Amelia Earhart had the direction finder repaired, and decided to leave the parachutes behind as no longer needed, since the rest of the trip would be over water
- at Lae, New Guinea, according to Earhart's reports, Noonan was again drunk
July 2, 10:22 a.m. - Amelia Earhart with Fred Noonan took off from Lae, New Guinea, with about 20 hours of fuel, to fly to Howland Island for a refueling stop
July 2 - Amelia Earhart was in radio contact with New Guinea for about seven hours
July 3, 3 a.m. - Amelia Earhart was in radio contact with the Coast Guard vessel Itasca
3:45 a.m. - Amelia Earhart reported by radio that weather was "overcast"
- a few weak transmissions followed
6:15 a.m. and 6:45 a.m. - Amelia Earhart asked for a bearing on her signal
7:45 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. - 3 more transmissions heard, also mentioned "gas is running low"
8:45 a.m. - last message heard, including "will repeat message" -- then no more transmissions heard
- naval ships and aircraft began search for the aircraft and Earhart and Noonan- various radio signals purporting to be from Earhart or Noonan were reported
July 19 - search abandoned by naval ships and aircraft, Putnam continued private search
October - Putnam abandoned his search
1939 - Amelia Earhart declared legally dead in a court in California
