Prominent People | Page 44 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 21, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Birds of Walter Rothschild

“Bird extinctions after European discovery were extensive and are now well documented; however, native Polynesians caused extinctions of an even greater magnitude. Fossil evidence shows at least 50% of the original avifauna became extinct after Polynesians arrived in Hawai’i around 400 A.D.”

“Initially, 109 endemic species occurred in the Hawaiian Islands, 35 of which (32%) still survived in 2001; 19 additional taxa (17.5%) were extant in the 18th century, whereas 55 (50.5%) are known only from the fossil and subfossil record.” (Perez)

“In pre-human Hawai‘i, the large land area and extensive coastlines, coupled with a relative absence of predators, provided ample habitat for a spectacular assemblage of seabirds; millions of petrels, albatrosses, shear-waters, terns, and other seabirds populated the islands. These birds were the first to be easily decimated or exterminated by island settlers.”

“After the unwary, flightless, ground- and burrow-nesting seabirds were eliminated, Polynesians devised an astounding variety of techniques for catching forest birds; these bird-hunting practices eventually wreacked havoc also among forest bird populations.”

“The severe past depredations of avifauna appear to have had a lasting negative effect on the Hawaiian forest birds and, as a result, the alarming trend of declining bird populations still continues.”

“Overall, the USA has suffered the most recently recorded bird extinctions (25) on Earth, 84% of which have taken place in Hawai’i.” (Perez)

With respect to post-Contact activities, “[Robert] Perkins, Henry Palmer, Scott Wilson, and George Munro – all were stalking and shooting Hawaiian birds in the 1890s, during the peak of what Alan Ziegler has called the “professional naturalist period” (1870-1900) in Hawaiian history.” (Tummons)

“Although scientific knowledge of the birds of the Hawaiian Islands began with the European discovery of the archipelago in 1778 by Captain James Cook, more than a century elapsed before any serious ornithological exploration of the islands took place.”

“In 1887, Scott Barchard Wilson, with the support and encouragement of Alfred Newton, Professor of Zoology at Magdalene College, Cambridge (England), embarked on a collecting expedition to the Hawaiian Islands, where he stayed until the end of 1888.”

“Descriptions of new species began appearing under Wilson’s name in August 1888, when he was still in the islands, and it has long been my belief that Newton wrote the bulk of everything that was attributed to Wilson and to Wilson and Evans.”

“The new discoveries arriving from the Hawaiian Islands excited the imagination of Newton’s pupil Walter Rothschild, who, using the wealth at his disposal, determined to send out his own collector.”

Lionel Walter [Walter] Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (the eldest son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild), (born February 8, 1868, London, England—died August 27, 1937, Tring, Buckinghamshire), was a British zoologist who founded the Rothschild Natural History Museum in London. (Britannica)

“His interest in natural history began when he was a child, collecting butterflies, and as a child, Walter knew exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up, announcing at the age of seven, ‘Mama, Papa, I am going to make a museum…’. By the time he was ten, Walter had enough natural history objects to start his first museum, in a garden shed.” (Rothschild Archive)

“He began building a real museum when he came of age in 1889 …. Having come under the influence of renowned ornithologist Alfred Newton while at Cambridge, his interest in birds moved to the fore for many years; entomology and ornithology remained the focuses of his scientific work for the rest of his life.”

“Although Rothschild himself traveled and collected in Europe and North Africa for many years, his work and health concerns limited his range, and beginning while at Cambridge he employed others – explorers, professional collectors, and residents – to collect for him in remote and little-known parts of the world.” (Olson)

“Walter employed around 400 collectors during his lifetime and accumulated specimens from more than 48 different countries, many of which were new to Western science. Collectors sent him animal specimens from around the world. Walter mainly stayed in Tring and focused on carefully studying the creatures he received and describing new species.” (Rothschild Archive)

“He also hired taxidermists, a librarian, and, most importantly, professional scientists to work with him to curate and write up the resulting collections: Ernst Hartert, for birds, from 1892 until his retirement at the age of 70 in 1930; and Karl Jordan for entomology, from 1893 until Rothschild’s death in 1937.”

“In 1890, when Rothschild was 23, he sent a sailor named Henry Palmer to the Sandwich Islands (as the Hawaiian Islands had been named by Captain James Cook in the late 1770s) and most particularly to Laysan, one of the Leeward Islands in the Hawaiian archipelago now part of the Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation.”

Palmer arrived in the Hawaiian Islands December 1890, with his New Zealander assistant George Munro, who stayed with him until March 1, 1892, when he was replaced by another New Zealander, Ed. (“Ted”) B. Wolstenholme. (Olson)

“His instructions were to collect as many different birds as possible, with special attention to inter-island variation. Palmer spent over two years at the task, from December 1890 to August 1893, and sent almost 2000 specimens back to Tring, including representatives of 15 species previously unknown to Western science and several species which have since become extinct.”

“These specimens formed the basis of Rothschild’s monograph The Avifauna of Laysan and the Neighboring Islands. The work includes a survey of the literature on the birds of Hawaii to that date, as well as a condensed version of Palmer’s collecting diary.” (Olson, Curator of Birds, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History)

“[Rothschild] built the collections continuously over the decades, until they formed the largest zoological collection ever amassed by a private individual.” (Olson)

“At its largest, the collection included 300,000 bird skins, 200,000 birds’ eggs, 2,250,000 butterflies, and 30,000 beetles, as well as thousands of specimens of mammals, reptiles, and fishes. The bird collection in particular was unparalleled, considered in many ways the finest in the world, and invaluable for the study of geographical variation and other aspects of evolution.” (Olson)

“During his lifetime Walter accumulated: 2,000 mounted mammals, about 2000 mounted birds, 2 million butterflies and moths, 300,000 bird skins, 144 giant tortoises, 200,000 birds’ eggs and 30,000 relevant books.” (Rothschild Archive)

“In spite of his family’s great wealth, the eccentric baron was sometimes short of money. He sold most of his beetles to raise funds for his museum, and in 1931 a personal crisis forced him to sell his bird collection to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.” (Natural History Museum)

“When he died at 69 in 1937, he left his remaining research collections, the public museum, its contents and the surrounding land to the Natural History Museum in London.”

“His collection is the biggest private natural history collection ever assembled by one person, and the largest bequest of specimens ever received by the Museum. … Today, Museum staff working at Tring look after more than a million bird specimens, nests and eggs. Researchers from around the world travel to Tring to use this important collection.” (Natural History Museum)

May 20, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Crossing Anahulu Stream

When the Reverend John Emerson and his wife Ursula arrived in Hawai‘i in 1832, they were assigned to establish an American Protestant missionary station in Waialua. (Clark)

“[T]wo new houses are building which we shall occupy as soon as they are finished. Only a few rods from them is a fine spring of running water, which feeds a small river large enough for canoes.”

“This is the Anahulu which, bending and broadening, empties about a third of a mile away into Waialua Bay, where the ocean waves roll in upon a sandy beach.” “The home was known thereafter as ‘Waipuolo,’ ‘The Bubbling Spring.’” (Emerson)

“The Anahulu river (cave of the hulu – a kind of fish) is a narrow estuary averaging forty feet wide, which makes up from Waialua Bay a mile or more to the mouth of the Kawailoa stream.”

“On its opposite banks were two homes facing each other. On one side were the Gulicks, and on the other the Emersons. In each family there were seven boys and a younger sister, the Gulicks ranging three or four years older than the Emersons.” (Emerson)

Later it was found that a “need of the Waialua farmers was easier access to the Honolulu market, which could only be reached by a horse-trail leading through deep gulches and streams, or by small coasters that had to contend with currents and baffling winds.”

“Accordingly, after much urging, it was decided by the Government to develop the horse-trail into a road and bridge the streams. Of course this work required supervision. The only man at hand who could plan it and handle both native and white workmen, was my father, so he was asked to add to his other duties that of being the road supervisor of the district.”

“During the two years my father held this office, the road up and down the sides of five gulches was graded and made fit for carriages and oxcarts, and over the streams five bridges were built. Eighteen miles of roadway were constructed to connect with the road already built from Honolulu to Ewa.”

“Some of the time my father had a gang of fifty or more natives under him making the road, and several white carpenters at work building the bridges. When all was finished, business in Waialua began to boom.” (Emerson)

Later, “the law declares that vehicles weighing more than 15 tons shall not cross public bridges or traverse public roads … (Star Bulletin, July 22, 1915) The bridge crossing Anahulu Stream in Haleiwa was designed to carry horse-drawn carriages. (Griffin)

Then, “traffic was stopped … when the Anahulu bridge between Waialua and Waialee collapsed under the weight of a twenty two ton plow tractor owned by the Waialua plantation.” (Hawaiian Gazette, July 20, 1915)

Around-the-island traffic stopped, “The Anahulu bridge, over the Anahulu stream at Waialua on the main road between Haleiwa and Kahuku; will be closed to traffic until further notice.” (Star Bulletin, July 20, 1915)

Then a new reinforced concrete bridge was planned across Anahulu Stream. George E Marshall was given a $62,000 contract to build the double arched span (each 80 feet long). (Advertiser, Aug 26, 1920)

During construction, the bridge was almost lost. “Working in the pouring rain from 9 o’clock Thursday night to 2 o’clock Friday morning, a gang of workmen directed by George e Marshall saved the new Haleiwa bridge, for which Marshall is the contractor, from probable destruction.”

“[T]he stream, usually low, became a raging torrent due to the kona storm, and was fully 100 yards wide and 10 feet deep. Masses of sugar cane, wooden flumes, boards and debris of various kinds were buried against the bridge by the storm waters and desperate work was necessary to keep the debris from backing up the flood.” (Star Bulletin, Dec 27, 1920)

The bridge later faced a different threat, “The old bridge channels through itself all the life around it. Spanning the Anahulu River, it pulls together the banks of Haleiwa.”

“It remembers the old and sees the new. Its too-narrow arches funnel the tide of progress filtering through the town. ‘Slow down’ it says ‘look at me.’ Built in 1921 when Haleiwa was a sleepy town, the bridge tries to lessen the pace of the traffic it channels through the still sleepy town.”

“The bridge still hears the plop of boots through the taro patches and the lap of waves against the orange and white sampans. The shrill whistle of the cane train is gone, and the clanking rumble of the Tournahauler is fading.”

“The bridge heard the Big-City folk call its neighboring buildings ‘delapidated’ but only scoffed. ‘Old things are good things,’ it said. ‘They allow the old to remember and the young to learn.’

“The bridge feels the surge of the tide below and the stain of red mud on its once-white arches. It feels the weight of small boys jeering the long tour cars or quietly fishing.”

“As the new small boat harbor was carved into the earth at its side, the bridge watched in wonder. Man diverted its river. Man cut off a chunk of the ocean for quiet waters. Man could easily have blown up the too-narrow bridge. Fortunately he didn’t.”

“Beautification once meant to the bridge a new coat of white paint. Now it may mean survival to the matron of Haleiwa, the guardian of the rotting buildings.”

“Like all structures the bridge once faced destruction in the face of bigger and more modern thoroughfares. But plans were changed. The new highway that will bring new faces in search of recreation will pass through Haleiwa nearer the mountains.”

“The old Kamehameha Highway will become a scenic route, a roadway of the past, if the young people of Haleiwa have their way.”

“The rebuilding and new construction in Haleiwa will take on a theme, so have decided the young men who once fished from the bridge. The most dominant scene will be the harbor, the sampans, the fishing village. The other scene, further up the river, will be the taro patches, the small riverside vegetable farms.”

“The new life that grows up along the shores of the river and beaches will share the laziness and quiet of the old life. And standing as a guardian between the two scenes will be the bridge, listening, seeing, feeling.” (Star Bulletin, Feb 14, 1967)

Due to its shape, it earned the name ‘Rainbow Bridge’ – a little more appealing that its technical name, ‘Kamehameha Highway Bridge #603.’ It is one of the most recognized symbols of Hale‘iwa. (Historic Hawai‘i Foundation)

May 19, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

First Lady Lawyer

“Foreign missionary Harvey Rexford Hitchcock married Rebecca Howard. They sailed for the Hawaiian Islands on the whaleship Averick, arriving in Honolulu 17 May 1832, after a voyage of 173 days. His sister Elizabeth later came to Hawai’i to join them.”

Harvey and Rebecca Hitchcock; they had four children, David Howard, Harvey Rexford Jr, Edward Griffin, and Sarah Diana (who died very young).

“The boys were educated at home until it was time for them to attend O’ahu College (now Punahou). After his Island schooling, David went to Massachusetts, where he entered Williams College as a sophomore in 1853. He returned to Molokai in 1855 where he read law with one of the best lawyers in the Islands.”

“David remembered a young lady school teacher whom he had met in his days back East and sent Almeda Eliza Widger of Otselic, New York, a proposal of marriage, adding that if he did not hear from her, he would consider it a refusal.”

“The letter did not reach her at once on its arrival and she saw it listed in the list of advertised letters. She wrote him that she would come and sailed from Boston on board the Raduga which after a long voyage around Cape Horn arrived finally at Honolulu considerably overdue.”

“Rev. Mr. Armstrong accompanied David on board the Raduga, and he married Almeda on 13 March 1857; thus, she arrived in Honolulu as Mrs. Hitchcock.” (June Hitchcock Humme, grandniece of Almeda Eliza Hitchcock)

“Their first child, Ella Marian, arrived before the new home was completed. Born in this home were Cora Etta, David Howard Jr, Almeda Eliza, and Charles Henry Wetmore Hitchcock.”

“The last daughter, Almeda Eliza, was born Saturday, 5 December 1863. Her father, writing to his brother Edward on 15 January 1864, had this to say about her: ‘… baby grows like a weed. We call her ‘Alme’ or ‘Kitty’, mostly the latter, as she is so good to lie still.’”

Alme was taught at home until age 15, when she and her sister Cora went to O’ahu College (Punahou) as boarders in Honolulu. In 1880 there were 112 students in the school, many of them boarders.

“In a family letter of 15, June 1881, Alme’s aunt Mary Castle Hitchcock states: ‘Cora will be through with her course and David and Almeda have decided that Alme is not to go back to school next year, on account of her health, which has never been as good since she had a fall in Hilo, four or five years ago, which hurt her back.’” (Humme)

That leads us to another child of David and Almeda, David Howard (Howard) Hitchcock.

“His brothers and sisters were not such problems to their father. Cora graduated from Punahou, married an educator and became a teacher herself. Alme, (Almeda) went on to college at Anne Arbor.”

“The oldest daughter, Ella, married Albert Loebenstein, a businessman, and Charles the younger son worked for the new telephone company, and for the railroad, as tax assessor and court clerk, all practical and normal jobs.”

David Hitchcock wanted his son to be a lawyer … Howard Hitchcock wanted to be an artist.

Before his formal training abroad, D Howard Hitchcock was inspired by other Volcano School painters and was encouraged by Jules Tavernier to endeavor life as an artist. Hitchcock admits to following Tavernier and Joseph Strong around, ‘like a parasite.’ (NPS HAVO)

“One family legend says that when Howard insisted on painting, his father sent him up to his Puakala ranch to hunt beef, where he presumably would be cut off from art for lack of supplies. But he found some house paint and made a charming study of akala berries on a door, which still survives.” (Shipman info sheet at Haena)

“But it was another event which may have turned the key for Howard’s complete release into the world of art. The Hawaiian Gazette for November 6, 1888 has a story titled ‘A Lady Lawyer … Miss Hitchcock Admitted to the Hawaiian Bar – The Pioneer of Her Sex.’” (Shipman) (Her brother, D Howard Hitchcock, became a famous Hawai‘i artist.)

Almeda Hitchcock was admitted to the bar in Michigan on December 27, 1887, before her graduation, “under honors – as she is class prophet.” (She was apparently the only woman among the 143 graduates in the law class.) (Matsuda)

Then, “Miss Almeda E. Hitchcock, daughter of Hon. D.H. Hitchcock, of Hilo, was on October 29th admitted to practice in the Courts of this Kingdom. She submitted to the Judges of the Supreme Court her diploma as Bachelor of Laws from Ann Arbor University, Michigan, also her license to practice law in the Circuit and Supreme Courts of that state.” (Hawaiian Gazette, Nov 6, 1888)

“Miss Alme E Hitchcock … will doubtless be the first woman to be admitted to the bar outside of the United States’. She indicated that she felt there would be no reluctance on the part of men attorneys in her country …”

“… pointing out that ‘there are at present no women practicing law, but there are quite a number of practicing [women] Physicians. The popular feeling is for rather than against women in the professions.” (Matsuda)

David Hitchcock made his daughter his partner at once, and the law firm of Hitchcock and Hitchcock presented its first case … the next day.” (Almeda made and won her first motion – the court dismissed the case.) (Matsuda)

“Although her career was short, lasting only five years before her marriage [on May 24, 1892, Hitchcock married American physician William Levi Moore] and early death [she died May 9, 1895, at the age of 31], Almeda Hitchcock led the way for women as the first lawyer and law partner in Hawai‘i.” (Case)

“She was possessed of many pleasant qualities, which made her an always welcome guest and her loss keenly felt. She received an education in the Law school of the University of Michigan and has shown an unusual aptitude for the profession. Hers was a life of bright promises.” (Hawaiian Gazette, Humme)

May 18, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Poi Boys

On May 9, 1959, the call letters of the existing AM station begun in 1946 were changed from KHON-AM to KPOI-AM and the format was changed to full-time rock-and-roll.

On May 18, 1959, KPOI Radio 1380 AM signed on the air (one of the first stations to use a name, not the series of call letters issued by the FCC). K-POI was the focal point of rock-and-roll in the Hawaiian Islands in the early years of Statehood. (Territorial Airwaves)

Originally on-air from 6am until midnight; after a few ratings KPOI went 24 hours. The ratings then were Hoopers. K-POI rocketed to #1 — with shares in the high teens and sometimes 20’s — by October. (Jacobs, ReelRadio)

The K-POI studio and tower were located at 1701 Ala Wai Boulevard between Kalakaua Ave and John Ena Road. The tower was located along the Ala Wai Canal, across from the old Aloha Motors location (across the Ala Wai from where the Convention Center is situated).

A crew of young broadcast vets known as the ‘Poi Boys’ came on and played the Top 40 hits mixed in with outrageous fun and games.

The original Poi Boys included ‘Uncle’ Tom Moffatt, Bob ‘The Beard’ Lowrie, ‘Jumpin’’ George West, Sam Sanford and ‘Whodaguy’ Ron Jacobs. “They ranged from merely extroverted to outright nuts.” (Jacobs) Moffatt stayed with the station for 14 years, eventually becoming vice president and general manager. Other Poi Boys came and went.

“We had a lot of creative minds at KPOI and that’s where I learned a lot,” says Mofatt. “It was the first 24-hour-a-day, all-rock station and that’s where we started putting our minds together and developing marathon hits, bowl-a-thons, hula-thons and every kind of ‘thon’ you could imagine.”

“The first, and greatest, [Thon] was when Tom Rounds, our News Director, stayed awake in a funky department store’s window for 8 1/2 days (!!!) thus breaking the record in the Guinness Book when few people even knew of that volume.”

“K-POI jocks hung from cars suspended from cranes, broadcast underwater from a glamorous Waikiki pool, and competed in Drum-A-Thons, Pool-A-Thons, Insult-A-Thons, donkey basketball games and endless stuff that caught the fancy of the kids turning on to Elvis, Frankie, Ricky, Fabian, etc.”

“We ran our own board, answered the phones, filled out two logs, flipped two-minute records, watched the news wire and made our own coffee. There was no such thing as a ‘post’ to ‘hit,’ children. You just felt it man.” (Jacobs, ReelRadio)

“In June 1960, Dave Donnelly, recently discharged from the Navy and studying drama at UH, joined KPOI as the weekend newsman. He replaced Larry Cott, who left to write political commentary full time. Within a year Donnelly was reading the news on the ‘Ron Jacobs Show.’”

“Every morning for three hours we peered at each other through a soundproof window. [Jacobs] played records by ‘Ricky’ Nelson, the Five Satins, Connie Francis — all the golden oldies of the future.”

“Donnelly reported on Hawaii newsmakers like Gov. William Quinn, Mayor Neal Blaisdell and new U.S. Sen. Hiram Fong. International headlines, which included named like Gagarin, Eichmann, Gromyko and DeGaulle, seemed to be coming from another worlds.”

“It was 20 years before CNN began … Rounds nicknamed Donnelly ‘The Moose’ because ‘he was big and hulking — like a moose.’”

“Later, when Donnelly morphed into a Poi Boy, he was issued a goofy jingle that ended with the words, ‘Moose, Moose, Moose.’ Donnelly pretty much despised the moniker.”

“If [Jacobs] called him the ‘Moose’ off the air, he would shut [him] up by calling [him] ‘Ronnie,’ which he knew [Jacobs] hated since elementary school.” (Jacobs, SB)

In the late 1970s, K-POI AM ceased operations, the property on 1701 Ala Wai Blvd sold and the AM tower dismantled. But the KPOI Poi Boys had changed Hawaii’s radio landscape forever. (Territorial Airwaves)

May 15, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas; the daughter of a railroad attorney, she spent her childhood in various towns, including Atchison and Kansas City, Kansas and Des Moines, Iowa.

“Doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke … but enjoys an occasional game of poker. … Dances anywhere a band plays. Says there’s a saying among aviators: ‘Show me how well you dance and I’ll tell you how well you can fly.’” (Keir)

“(Flying) may not be all plain sailing … But the fun of it is worth the price.” (Putnam, The Fun Of It)

When she was 10, she saw her first plane at a state fair … she was not impressed. “It was a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not at all interesting.”

It wasn’t until she attended a stunt-flying exhibition, almost a decade later, that she became seriously interested in aviation. A pilot spotted her and her friend, who were watching from an isolated clearing, and dove at them. “I am sure he said to himself, ‘Watch me make them scamper.’” She stood her ground.

Something inside her awakened as the plane swooped by. “I did not understand it at the time,” she said, “but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by.” On December 28, 1920, pilot Frank Hawks gave her a ride that would forever change her life.

“By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground,” she said, “I knew I had to fly.” (California Museum) Learning to fly in California, she took up aviation as a hobby, taking odd jobs to pay for her flying lessons.

In 1922, with the financial help of her sister, Muriel, and her mother, Amy Otis Earhart, she purchased her first airplane. She was the 16th woman to earn her pilot license, receiving it on May 15, 1923.

In 1929, she and a group of other women pilots (a total of 99) formed the Ninety-Nines; she served at its first president. Later, she met and married (February 7, 1931) George Palmer Putnam, a publisher and promoter.

She flew for ‘fun.’ She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic (1932,) the first woman to fly solo, nonstop, across the US from Los Angeles to Newark (1932,) and the first person to fly solo between Los Angeles and Mexico City and between Mexico City and Newark (1935.)

She came to Hawaiʻi twice (December 27, 1934 to January 11, 1935 (to make the Hawaiʻi to the continent) and March 17 through March 20, 1937 (as part of the first plan to fly around-the-world.))

“Over the Christmas holiday (1934,) Amelia Earhart and George Putnam, along with Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mantz, arrived in Honolulu on December 27, having sailed on the Matson liner SS Lurline. Amelia’s Lockheed Vega was secured on the ocean liner’s deck. The group spent two weeks vacationing in Hawaiʻi.” She visited Hilo and planted a banyan tree on “Hilo Walk of Fame.”

Five days after planting the banyan tree, she took off from Wheeler Field, Oʻahu and after 18-hours and 15-minutes, Amelia and “Old Bessie, the Fire Horse,” made a perfect landing at Oakland Airport at 1:31, January 12, 1935, she was engulfed by a cheering crowd of 5,000-enthusiastic supporters.

It was another record flight for Amelia – the very first person, man or woman, to fly solo between Hawaiʻi and the American continent and the first civilian airplane to carry a two-way radio. (Plymate)

A commemorative plaque to honor her trans-pacific solo flight was put up on Diamond Head Road. Documents of that flight were placed in a copper box and inserted into the plaque’s base on March 6. It was dedicated on March 14, 1937.

The last Hawaiʻi visit was part of her planned flight around-the-world. She assembled a team to make an around-the-world flight (navigators Fred Noonan and Captain Harry Manning, as well as technical advisor/assistant navigator Paul Mantz.) It wouldn’t be the first around-the world flight, but it would be the longest, taking an equatorial route.

They set out from Oakland on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17, 1937) and headed for Hawaiʻi on the first leg of their journey. After 15-hours and 47-minutes they landed at Wheeler Field. (From there they would travel on to Howland Island in the South Pacific, and then on to Australia.) The plane was moved to Luke Field for take-off on the next leg.

At 5:53 am, March 20, 1937, she began the take-off roll; suddenly, at the 1,000-foot mark the right tire blew (ten seconds more and the plane would have been airborne.)

The right landing gear broke and the right wing and other parts of the plane were badly damaged (no one was hurt.) Within 6-hours after the aborted take-off, she was heading for San Francisco via ship. The plane had to be shipped back to California for repairs and the round the world trip was rescheduled.

She set out on her second attempt in June, this time with only Noonan to assist her effort. They set again from Oakland, this time flying from west to east, across the continental US to Miami, Florida.

They then flew toward Central and South America before finally turning east and crossed Africa and southern and southeastern Asia before setting down in Lae, New Guinea on June 29, 1937.

Necessary repairs and adjustments were made and the plane was refueled for the big trek across the Pacific to tiny Howland Island – the destination Earhart was attempting to reach on her first around-the-world attempt.

On July 1, she made her way from Lae, New Guinea for Howland Island. A radio report was received from her plane that she was over the ocean with no land in sight, with about one-half hour’s fuel left on board. (hawaii-gov)

They never reached Howland Island; they disappeared July 2, 1937.

Despite an extensive coordinated search carried out by the Navy and Coast Guard with 66-aircraft and 9-ships they were not found. (On January 5, 1939 Amelia Earhart was declared legally dead, in Superior Court in Los Angeles, California.)

In 1938, a lighthouse was constructed on Howland Island in her memory, and across the United States, streets, schools, and airports are named after Earhart. Her birthplace, Atchison, Kansas, became a virtual shrine to her memory.

The search for clues to Earhart’s disappearance continued. It was recently reported on Discovery that a fragment of her lost plane (a patch that replaced a navigational window in her modified plane) has been identified to a high degree of certainty.

New research strongly suggests that a piece of aluminum aircraft debris recovered in 1991 from Nikumaroro, an uninhabited atoll in the southwestern Pacific republic of Kiribati, does belong to Earhart’s plane. (The rivet pattern and other features on the 19-inch-wide by 23-inch-long fragment matched the patch and lined up with the structural components of the plane.)

The breakthrough suggests that, contrary to what was generally believed, Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, did not crash in the Pacific Ocean, running out of fuel somewhere near their target destination of Howland Island.

Instead, they may have made a forced landing on Nikumaroro’ smooth, flat coral reef. The two became castaways and eventually died on the atoll, which is some 350 miles southeast of Howland Island. Further research is on-going. (Lots of information here is from hawaii-gov, Soylent and Amelia Earhart Museum.)