Celebrate Amelia Earhart Day

Aviators around the world can celebrate Amelia Earhart day on July 24. This famous female pilot, born on July 24, 1897, broke many early aviation records while competing with male airmen of the time. Her final flight was an attempt to fly around the world with her navigator Fred Noonan. Unfortunately the pair disappeared somewhere near Howland Island during bad weather. Their disappearance sparked the largest search and rescue mission ever to be mounted.

Hilary Swank plays the intrepid flying enthusiast in the 2009 movie Amelia. Richard Gere stars as her husband George Putnam. Christopher Eccleston takes on the role of her navigator Fred Noonan and Ewan McGregor portrays an aeronautics instructor with whom she has an affair in the movie.

Amy Adams depicts the feisty flyer in the 2009 movie Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. In this movie, Amelia is a wax figure that, like the other exhibits in the museum, comes to life after dark.

Gigi Perreau voices the character of Amelia in the animated children’s movie Fly Me to the Moon.