Born 1951, U.S.A.

On March 17, 1937, American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart (1897–1937) took off from an airfield in Oakland, California, in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra 10E, attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world at or near the equator. A crash at her first stop in Hawaii delayed the trip, which she resumed—accompanied by navigator Fredrick J. Noonan (1893–1937)—on May 21. This time, because of changes in the weather, she headed east, eventually departing from Miami, Florida, on June 1. All went well for 22,000 miles, until Earhart reached the most dangerous part of her journey—in the central Pacific. Scheduled to land on tiny and remote Howland Island, she and Noonan never arrived. Having departed from New Guinea on July 1, the fliers were not seen again and no traces of them or their aircraft have ever been found.

Sixty years...