Amelia Earhart was born in Kansas in 1897 and grew up with her sister Muriel. She showed an early interest in aviation, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932. In 1937, Earhart embarked on a flight to circumnavigate the globe near the equator. During the final leg across the Pacific Ocean from New Guinea to Howland Island, Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared, never to be found.