This woman was a straight-up daredevil. She was a brave spirit that accomplished so much in her short time here. She defied many odds and really showed how women could be courageous and full of adventure in a time where that wasn’t really possible. Here are 5 amazing facts about Amelia Earhart.
She Loved Adventure at a Young Age
When she went to St. Louis as a young child, she saw a rollercoaster and was immediately intrigued by it. She loved the height and speed of it, so she and her uncle built a rollercoaster-like contraption on the roof of her family’s shed. She went down the ramp on a wooden box. Even when she busted her lip and tore her dress, she described the experience “like flying.”
She Went All Out for Women’s Rights
The bloomer (pants) wearing daredevil was one of the first gun-ho supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment in regards to women being treated fairly.
She Paid for Her Flight Lessons By Herself
Amelia wasn’t afraid of hard work. Earhart and her father visited an airfield in Long Beach, California in 1920. She went on a flight with a pilot named Frank Hawks. When she was a few hundred feet off the ground, she knew flying was her calling. In order to pay for flight lessons, she was a truck driver, stenographer, and photographer.
She Flew Alone
All those trips she took across the ocean, she did it by herself. By 1932, she was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She was quite ambitious because the next trip she became the first person to fly across the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Her Bones May Have Been Found
In 1940, Dr. D.W. Hoodless examined some bones that were found on the remote island of Nikumaroro in the South Pacific. He concluded that they were bones of a man after a number of experiments. However, in 2018, the University of Tennessee revealed new information that the bones actually belonged to Earhart. The study reported that the bones have more similarity to Earhart than 99% of individuals. Professor Richard Jantz reexamined the bones with modern techniques and determined that Hoodless was wrong. The consistency of the bones and her going missing on Nikumaroro all make it pretty clear that those are almost for certain Amelia’s remains.
