Five years to the day that aviator Charles Lindbergh became
the first pilot to accomplish a solo, nonstop flight across the
Atlantic Ocean, female aviator Amelia Earhart became the
first pilot to repeat the feat, landing her plane in Ireland after
flying across the North Atlantic. Earhart traveled over 2,000
miles from Newfoundland in just under 15 hours.

Unlike Charles Lindbergh, Earhart was well known to the public
before her solo transatlantic flight. In 1928, as a member of a
three-person crew, she had become the first woman to cross
the Atlantic in an aircraft.

Although her only function during the crossing was to keep
the plane’s log, the event won her national fame. For her
solo transatlantic crossing in 1932, she was awarded a
Distinguished Flying Cross by the U.S. Congress.

Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, where Amelia Earhart set off
from on her record-breaking solo flight.

SANDY KOZEL

The Spirit is on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution‘s National Air and Space Museum in
Washington, D.C..

On May 20, 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob W. Davis (above) 
received a patent for “Improvements in Fastening Pocket-
Openings.”

This was riveted denim work pants under the name Levi
Strauss & Co., a popular blue jean company that is still in
business today.

At 7:52 a.m., American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh took off
from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, on the world’s
first solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean and the first
ever nonstop flight between New York to Paris.

Lindbergh, a young airmail pilot, was a dark horse when he
entered a competition with a $25,000 payoff to fly nonstop
from New York to Paris. He ordered a small monoplane,
configured it to his own design, and christened it the Spirit
of St. Louis in tribute to his sponsor–the St. Louis Chamber
of Commerce.

Lindbergh’s achievement made him an international celebrity
and won widespread public acceptance of the airplane and
commercial aviation.

Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.

On May 19, 1943, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt plot the cross-Channel
landing that would become D-Day—May 1, 1944.

That date would prove a bit premature, as bad weather
became a factor.

The D-Day invasion ended up taking place on June 6, 1944.