The Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
On July 2, 1937, record-setting aviatrix Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan disappeared over the Pacific in their attempt to fly around the world. The two set out in Earhart’s twin-engine Lockheed Electra, taking off from Oakland, Calif., for Miami on May 21. They flew across the Atlantic from Brazil to Africa, then reached Calcutta on June 17, having made 15 stops thus far. On July 2 they departed Lae, New Guinea, for tiny Howland Island in the Pacific, but never arrived. Radio operators received messages from Earhart saying that they had to be close and were circling, searching for land, but radio contact was lost and the two were never heard from again. There has been much speculation about the aviators’ fate and the plane’s whereabouts, but none of the evidence found has been conclusive.
Photo: Library of Congress
