For her accomplishments alone, Earhart earned herself a degree of legendary status. However, it is her unfortunate disappearance after she set off on her ambitious global flight of 1937 that has captivated people to this day. On June 1, 1937, Earhart and Fred Noonan, her navigator, set out from Oakland, California, on their eastbound transcontinental flight on a twin-engine Lockheed Electra plane. Less than a month later they reached Lae, New Guinea, having flown 22,000 miles and with 7,000 more to go before they reached Oakland once again. After departing from Lae, they had to fly another 2,500 miles before they reached their next stop—Howland Island, an incredibly small island in the Pacific Ocean—to refuel. Unfortunately, overcast skies, radio transmission issues, and low fuel meant that Earhart and Noonan did not reach their destination. Despite extreme efforts to locate the plane, which ended up constituting the most expensive air and sea search in American history up to that point, there was no sign of Earhart or Noonan anywhere. Earhart was officially declared dead on January 5, 1939.

In its report, the U.S. government concluded that Earhart and Noonan had run out of fuel and crashed into the vast ocean. What happened after the crash is still unclear. Given the mystery surrounding this event, several theories have emerged that are still being debated to this day. One theory suggests that Earhart was a secret agent for the U.S. government and that she was taken prisoner by the Japanese for trying to spy on Japanese-occupied islands. The more widely believed theory is that Earhart and Noonan reached an uninhabited island, Nikumaroro, where artifacts such as tools and aircraft wreckage have been discovered. No theory has ultimately been proven true, and so Earhart’s disappearance remains one of the most popular mysteries of American history. Despite the tragic end to Earhart’s life, her accomplishments and her legacy still serve as an inspiration to thousands of budding young pilots everywhere.