Give Now »
In August 2007, amidst hourly updates on the fate of six coal miners trapped by a Utah mine collapse, word of another mine accident emerged—this time from the Hoosier State. Three workers in the Gibson Mine descending into an air shaft they were building fell more than 500 feet to their death when the bucket lowering them was somehow upset.
The year after Charles Lindbergh made the first flight across the Atlantic, Amelia Earhart followed suit. Although she’d had a pilot’s license for five years by 1928, Earhart lacked the training necessary to fly the plane herself during that maiden voyage; but made history nonetheless as the first woman to fly across the Atlantic as a passenger.
When reflecting on Indiana history, we most often consider the last two centuries—only occasionally delving into the century or two prior to that. In 2003, however, Indiana distinguished itself as a preeminent location for the study of pre -history.
When considering people with Indiana ties who hold a record for having crossed a body of water, Amelia Earhart’s is one name that comes up. The first woman to make a trans-Atlantic trip by plane taught for a time at Purdue, which also financed the Lockheed Electra in which the aviatrix ultimately vanished.