Amelia Earhart

Amelia Mary Earhart (born 24 July, 1897, Atchison, Kansas - missing from 2 July 1937, western Pacific ocean), daughter of Edwin and Amy Earhart, was an American aviator and noted early female pilot who mysteriously disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during a circumnavigational flight in 1937.

Urban legends

During the decades since her disappearance many rumours and urban legends have circulated (and often been published) about what might have happened to Earhart and Noonan. Some have claimed Earhart was captured in the South Pacific Mandate area by the Japanese and interned for a number of years before either perishing or being executed. Purported photographs of Earhart during her captivity have been identified as having been taken before her final flight. A fictional World War II era movie called Flight for Freedom starring Rosalind Russell and Fred MacMurray is often cited as the most likely source of a popular myth Earhart was a spy. Some researchers have noted the possibility that for wartime propaganda purposes, the US government may have tacitly encouraged (or was indifferent to) false rumours Earhart had been captured by the Japanese. An archaeological dig on Tinian in 2004 failed to turn up any bones at a location rumoured since the close of World War II to be the aviators' grave.

Related Topics:
Urban legends - South Pacific Mandate - Japan - World War II - Flight for Freedom - Rosalind Russell - Fred MacMurray - Myth - Spy - Propaganda - Tinian - 2004

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Perhaps the strangest rumour was that Earhart had been forced to make propaganda radio broadcasts as one of the many women known as Tokyo Rose. Others have suggested Earhart later managed to return to America where she changed her name and lived out her life quietly, while still others blame her disappearance on Unidentified Flying Objects. There is no evidence to support any of these suggestions, which have all been dismissed by serious historians.

Related Topics:
Tokyo Rose - Unidentified Flying Objects

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