Amelia Earhart 2012

Earhart was the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, received the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for achieving this record. She also set many other records, and wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences. She was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organisation for female pilots.
Earhart was also a member of the National Woman's Party, and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.
During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937, she mysteriously disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life, career and disappearance continues to this day.