Happy 110th, Amelia Earhart.

Amelia Earhart, Aviator / Missing Person

Born: 24 July 1897

Birthplace: Atchison, Kansas

Died: 2 July 1937 (presumed dead in plane crash at sea)

Best Known As: The pioneering female pilot who disappeared in the South Pacific

During the scarcely more than five years remaining in her life, Earhart acted as a tireless advocate for commercial aviation and for women's rights. The numerous flying records she amassed included:

1931: Altitude record in an autogiro

First person to fly an autogiro across the United States and back

1932: Fastest non-stop transcontinental flight by a woman

1933: Breaks her own transcontinental speed record

1935: First person to fly solo across the Pacific from Hawaii to California

First person to fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico

Aviation legend Amelia Earhart is most famous for the mysterious circumstances of her death: she disappeared in 1937 somewhere in the South Pacific, near the end of an attempted round-the-world flight. Despite extensive searches, no clear evidence has ever been found of Earhart, her navigator Fred Noonan, or their plane. Before her disappearance Earhart was one of the most famous women in America. She had set many flight records, including becoming the first woman to fly solo across both the Atlantic Ocean (in 1932) and the Pacific Ocean (in 1935). She also was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in a multi-person plane, making the crossing in 1928 with pilot Wilmer Stultz and Lou Gordon. She authored the books 20 Hours, 40 Minutes (1928, about her first trans-Atlantic flight) and The Fun of It (1932).

Earhart was married to publisher George Putnam... She was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by Congress in 1932 (the DFC was later restricted to military recipients only)... She was sometimes called "Lady Lindy," a reference to famous flier Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic.

http://www.answers.com/topic/amelia-earhart

found a few items on Nikumaroro Island on several expeditions that could be from Earhart's plane and other stuff like bits of a shoe that could've been worn by her, suggesting that she and Noonan may have crash-landed, possibly surviving for awhile.

http://www.tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/AEdescr.html

My grandparents, Elmer R. Weaver and Ethel B. Weaver, lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland and they were active members of the National Geographic Society. They went to all the monthly luncheons at the NGS headquarters in Washington DC. One time, my grandfather was sick, so my grandmother took my dad to the luncheon. He was about 13 or 14 at the time (this was the early 1930s, but I'm not sure exactly what year). The guest speaker at that luncheon was Amelia Earhart. Also, Eleanor Roosevelt was in attendance. When it was all over, my dad and his mother were walking through the hallways at NGS headquarters, and came upon Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart in a hallway, having a conversation. My grandmother introduced my dad to them and the 4 of them had a polite conversation. When he told me about this, he couldn't remember what they talked about, but it was a memory he cherished for the rest of his life.