January 5th 1939: Amelia Earhart declared dead
On this day in 1939, the American aviator Amelia Earhart was declared dead after disappearing in July 1937. Earhart was born in Kansas in 1897, and despite a turbulent childhood she excelled in school and demonstrated an aptitude for science. During the First World War, Earhart gained an admiration for pilots, and took her first plane ride in 1920. She worked odd jobs to save money for flying lessons, eventually purchasing her own plane in 1921. Earhart earned her earned her pilot’s license the next year, when she was 25, becoming just the sixteenth woman to do so. Inspired by Charles Lindbergh’s successful solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, Earhart was selected to be the first woman to make the transatlantic flight. However, due to her gender she was not allowed to be a pilot, but was instead a passenger. Nonetheless, her involvement in the historic journey made Earhart a celebrity, which she used to promote women in aviation and challenge gender biases. In May 1932, Earhart made history by becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. She continued to break records, becoming the first person to fly across the Atlantic and the Pacific, but set her sights much higher - she wanted to fly around the world. The first attempt suffered technical problems, and the second attempt took off on June 1 1937. Earhart and her crew had covered 22,000 miles of their 29,000 mile journey when their plane disappeared. The plane’s last communication was made on the morning of July 3 1937, and despite a vast search, the fate of the plane and its passengers remain a mystery. Two years later, on January 5 1939, Amelia Earhart was officially declared dead. Theories abound as to the fate of the plane, including the possibility that the plane crashed or made an emergency landing on an island, where the crew lived for some time. Amelia Earhart is remembered for her contributions to aviation, and also her symbolic position as a role model for women.
