1897: Born in Atchison, Kansas on July 24 to Amy Otis Earhart and Edwin Stanton Earhart
As a child, Amelia and her sister Muriel spend time outdoors climbing trees, sledding, and hunting.
They spend most of their time at their grandparents’ house due to their father’s alcoholism.
1908: Amelia’s first interaction with flight while visiting the Iowa State Fair at age 10
Amelia does not find flight impressive at first. She describes it as “a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not at all interesting”
1910-1915: Family challenges
Her grandmother who raised the girls died in 1911
Her father continued to struggle with addiction and admitted himself to a sanatorium for one month.
In 1913, the family moves to St. Paul, Minnesota. After her father does not recover from his addiction, her mother moves her daughters to Chicago.
1916: High school education
Amelia graduates from Hyde Park High School where she excels in science.
She struggles to make friends; her yearbook caption reads, “A.E. – the girl in brown who walks alone.”
1918: Serves as a WWI nurse in Toronto
She briefly attends Philadelphia’s Ogontz School, but leaves her studies to volunteer as a nurse during WWI.
While in Toronto, Amelia and Muriel meet local Royal Flying corps officers to watch the pilots practice.
1920: First flight
Amelia and her father attend an air show in Long Beach, California.
Pilot Frank Hawk takes her on her first airplane ride,
“By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground, I knew how to fly.”
1921: First flying lesson Amelia takes up truck driving, working for a telephone company, and photography to save up the $1,000 she needed for lessons.
Amelia insists on being taught by a woman, making Anita “Neta” Snook her first teacher.
On her 25th birthday, she purchases her first airplane, a yellow Kinner Airster biplane called “The Canary.”
1922: Sets an altitude record for female pilots
Just a year after she begins flying, she sets the women’s altitude record by flying to 14,000 feet in an air meet at Los Angeles’ Rogers Air Field in The Canary.
1923: Receives her international pilot’s license
Amelia becomes the 16th woman to ever receive an international pilot’s license.
She also receives a flying certificate from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.
1924: Takes a hiatus from aviation
Amelia sells her plane to help her family with finances after her parents divorce.
She moves in with her mother and sister Muriel in Massachusetts.
She briefly attends Columbia University and works as an English teacher and social worker at Denison House.
She joins the Boston chapter of the National Aeronautic Association and flies occasionally.
1928: Flies across the Atlantic
Amelia becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic as a passenger with pilot Wilmer Stultz and Louis “Slim” Gordon.
They fly to Wales after spending 20 hours in the air.
The public calls her “Lady Lindy.”
After this flight, she becomes a celebrity overnight;
- She is invited to the White House for a reception with President Coolidge
- She signs a book deal for "20 Hours, 40 Minutes", a book detailing her flight over the Atlantic
- She accepts a job as an Aviation Editor for Cosmopolitan
- She endoreses products like Lucky Strike Cigarettes
- She goes on a lecture tour
1929: Co-founds the Ninety-Nines
The Ninety-Nines becomes the first organization for female aviators with 99 charter members.
Amelia is the group’s first president and holds the position until 1933.
1930: Sets the women’s flying speed record
The record is set at 181.18 miles per hour.
She becomes Vice President of airline Ludington Lines and receives her transport pilot’s license.
Her father dies of cancer.
- 1931: Amelia marries George Putnam
- Before accepting his proposal, she rejects him six times due to her wariness of marriage.
- Amelia writes in her vows, “In our life together I shall not hold you to any medieval code of faithfulness to me, nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly”
- 1932: First solo female flight across the Atlantic
- She departs from Newfoundland and lands in Northern Ireland.
- She receives the Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society and the Army Air Corps Distinguished Flying Cross.
- She also becomes the first woman to fly solo across North America and back.
- She publishes her autobiography, “For the Fun of It.”
1933: Becomes friends with Eleanor Roosevelt
She inspires Eleanor to get her own student pilot’s license.
She flies across North America for a second time, breaking her first record.
1935: Solo flight from Hawaii to California
Amelia becomes the first person to fly solo from Honolulu to Oakland, CA
Joins the teaching faculty at Purdue University as a career counselor for women and an advisor to the school’s aeronautics department.
1936: Preparation for the Round-the-World Flight
Purdue University provides finances for Amelia’s Lockhead Electra 10E to be used for her dream of flying across the globe.
Amy and her husband raise money for her flight and work with advisers, mechanics, and navigators.
1937: Round-the-world flight attempts
Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan, Captain Harry Manning, and stunt pilot Paul Mantz fly from Oakland, California to Honolulu Hawaii.
When they attempt to depart Honolulu, the plane is damaged upon a takeoff attempt and is returned to California for repairs.
In the second attempt, Amelia and Fred Noonan depart from Miami, Florida, stopping in South America, Africa, India, and Lae, New Guinea.
Amelia and Fred depart from Lae and get lost while looking for Howland Island. They lose contact with the Coast Guard a disappear over the Pacific Ocean.