An aviation pioneer and hero to men and women alike, Amelia Earhart would have been 115 years old today. For her birthday, Google has honored her with an (what-else?) airplane-themed Doodle.
Earhart is best known for being the first woman to succeed in flying solo across the Atlantic Ocean. In 1932, and 34-year-old Earhart took off from Newfoundland with the intentions of flying nonstop to Paris. After a flight that took nearly 15 hours, Earhart found herself in Northern Ireland.
Naturally, this ignited her fame. Earhart received numerous medals and honors from all of the top brass in the American Government, and even formed a high-profile friendship with the first lady at the time, Eleanor Roosevelt. Over the course of the next few years, Earhart continued to make aviation history by setting numerous records and making more solo flights, many of which she was the first to make.
In 1937, during her second attempt at a world flight, Earhart famously went missing over the Pacific ocean. During a stretch of the tour from Lea, New Guinea to her indicated destination of Howard Island, radio contact was lost and Earhart was never to be seen again. Her whereabouts have been the subject of one of the longest-running mysteries in popular American culture.
Earlier this year, a team dedicated to uncovering the Electra wreckage launched a new search effort. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery believes that instead of crashing into the Pacific, Earhart may have landed on a reef and survived for a short time.
The expedition, which carried a price tag of $2.2 million, has returned without conclusive results.