History Essay: What Happened to Amelia Earhart?

There are many different theories on Amelia Earhart’s disappearance. Amelia Earhart was the first woman pilot who tried to fly around the earth’s circumference. Amelia Earhart's disappearance remains a mystery because people are still interested in her life before becoming a pilot, how she went missing and the theories around her disappearance.

Amelia Earhart's disappearance remains a mystery because people are still interested in her life before becoming a pilot. In the source  “Amelia Earhart” by Debra Michals, “In 1932, she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic—as a pilot.” Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897. She was born in Atchison, Kansas to her mother Amy Otis Earhart and father Edwin Stanton Earhart. Working at a Canadian military hospital, she met aviators and became interested in flying. In 1920 she began flying with female aviator Neta Snook. For her 25th birthday she bought a Kinner Airster biplane and in 1922 she set the women’s altitude record at 14,000 feet but had to sell it due to debt. In 1924, she moved to Massachusetts after her mother’s divorce with her mother and sister where she became a settlement worker at the Dennison house in Boston. In 1928, a publisher by the name of George Putnam selected Amelia to become the very first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by plane, which she did so as a passenger. Amelia Earhart married George Putnam in 1931 but kept her maiden name. Because people are still interested in Amelia Earhart's life before becoming a pilot, her disappearance remains a mystery.

Amelia Earhart's disappearance remains a mystery because people are still interested in how she went missing. On June 1 of 1937, Earhart took flight from Oakland, California on a eastbound flight around the world on her second attempt to become the first pilot to ever fly around the world. Flying a twin-engine Lockheed 10E Electra with her navigator Fred Noonan they flew to Miami, to South America, crossing the Atlantic ocean to Africa, then to India and Southeast asia. On June 29 they made it to Lae, New Guinea already flying 22,000 miles and still had to fly 7,000 more to reach back to Oakland, California. Departing from Lea they headed for the small Howland Island to refuel on July 2. This was the last time Earhart and Noonan were seen alive. She lost contact with the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca stationed off the coast of Howland Island and disappeared. In the source “Amelia Earhart” by History.com Editors “President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized a massive two-week search for the pair, but they were never found. On July 19, 1937, Earhart and Noonan were declared lost at sea.” Because people are still interested in how Amelia Earhart went missing, her disappearance remains a mystery.

Amelia Earhart's disappearance remains a mystery because people are still interested in the theories around her disappearance. In the source “What Happened to Amelia Earhart?” by History.com Editors “Amid ongoing controversy, spanning more than 80 years of debate among researchers and historians, the crash-and-sink theory remains the most widely accepted explanation of Earhart’s fate.” The first theory is the Castaway Theory which says when Amelia said she was flying on a set of coordinates that describe one of the lines running through the Howland Island they got lost and stered of course to a nearby Island 350 miles nautical miles from the Howland Island. The theory states they made an emergency landing and lived on the island of Nikumaroro for a short period of time and ended up dying there. The second theory states that Amelia and Noonan were taken prisoner by the Japanese at the Marshall Islands. This theory says that they forced Amelia to land on the Marshall Islands who were held by the Japanese and took them to the island of Saipan where they were tortured because they were thought to be U.S. spies and then later died in Japan’s custody.

In conclusion, Amelia Earhart's disappearance remains a mystery because people are still interested in her life before becoming a pilot, how she went missing and the theories around her disappearance. Amelia Earhart was the first woman pilot who tried to fly around the earth’s circumference. There are many different theories on Amelia Earhart’s disappearance. 

Works Cited

History.com Editors. “Amelia Earhart.” HISTORY, 9 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/exploration/amelia-earhart.

History.com Editors. “What Happened to Amelia Earhart?” HISTORY, 4 June 2010, www.history.com/topics/exploration/what-happened-to-amelia-earhart.

Michals, Debra. “Amelia Earhart.” National Women’s History Museum, 2015, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/amelia-earhart.