AMELIA MARY EARHART: JULY 24, 1897 TO JULY 2, 1937

WHO WAS SHE ? Amelia Earhart was born on the 24 th July, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. She was named after her two grandmothers Amelia Harres Otis and Mary Wells Earhart. Amelia was called "Meelie" at home by her younger sister Muriel, because as a young child, Muriel couldn't pronounce Amelia's name correctly. Her father, Edwin, was a lawyer who worked for the railroad. He did not like aeroplanes. Amelia and her sister liked to play sports like baseball and football. Amelia learnt how to shoot a.22 rifle and used it to kill rats in her dad’s barn.

She was an amazing pilot. June 17th 1928: Amelia was part of the first team to successfully cross the Atlantic. It took 21 hours. May 20th 1932: Amelia took off from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, (hoping to land in Paris) in a bid to become the first woman and the second person to fly solo the Atlantic. Strong winds and mechanical problems forced her to land in a field near Derry in Ireland. The attempt made her famous. Congress awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross, the first ever given to a woman. January : she became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific from Honolulu to Oakland, California. Later that year, she was the first to solo from Mexico City to Newark. July 2nd 1937: She disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. She had wanted to be the first woman to fly around the world. She was declared dead on January 5, 1939 WHY IS SHE FAMOUS ?

WHAT HAPPENED TO HER? Amelia disappeared with her navigator Fred Noonan when she tried to fly across the Pacific Ocean and to land on Howland Island. It was only tiny but they needed to land there to be able to refuel. The US coast guard had difficulty maintaining radio contact. In one of the last messages she sent she said ‘Fuel is running low. Been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet“. The ship tried to reply, but the plane seemed not to hear. They went on looking for her for 2 years and but she was declared dead in 1939.

FUN FACTS ABOUT AMELIA EARHART 1. When she was eleven years old, Amelia saw one of the Wright Brothers first airplanes at the Iowa State Fair. She didn't think much of the plane at the time. 2. Amy Earhart encouraged her daughter's passion. 3. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was so inspired by Earhart that she signed up for flying lessons. 4. The U.S. government spent $4 million searching for Amelia Earhart when she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. 5. Amelia's childhood pet, a large black dog, was named James Ferocious, because of his bad temper with strangers. 6. Amelia took her first flying lesson on January 3, 1921 and, in six months, bought her first plane. It was a second-hand bright yellow two-seater biplane that she called "The Canary“, She used it to set her first women's record by flying it to an altitude of 14,000 feet. 7. Wreckage thought to be from her plane was found on an uninhabited island called Nikumaroro in 1991.

I HOPE YOU WERE LISTENING Q: Name one of the grandmothers that Amelia was named after. A: Amelia Harres Otis or Mary Wells Earhart.

Amelia Earhart felt very strongly that women were as good as men in all "jobs requiring intelligence, coordination, speed, coolness, and willpower " and she set out to prove jut that. That’s All Folks!