Amelia Earhart standing in front of her plane in 1937.
Amelia Earhart is one of the world’s most famous female aviators and writers. She holds world records for being the first woman to fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean. She was born in Atchison, Kansas on July 24, 1897. She defied traditional gender roles from a young age. Earhart played basketball, took an auto repair course, and briefly attended college. She attended her first flying exhibition in 1918 as a Red Cross nurse’s aide. 87 years ago, her plane disappeared into the depths of the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. A former US Air Force intelligence recently claimed to have found the plane about 100 miles from where her signal initially cut out. There are plans to continue this investigation within the coming year.