Amy Johnson was the first woman to have flown solo from England to Australia in May 1930 – a distance of 17,600 kms. In 1936, she also achieved a record breaking solo flight from England to South Africa. In July 1933 she and her husband made a transatlantic flight from England to America. It was the first non stop flight from the two countries. Her flying career began in 1928, and her other triumphs included becoming the first female ground engineer licensed by the Air Ministry.
Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, and also the first female pilot to make solo transatlantic and transpacific flights. During the war, Amelia worked as a military nurse in Canada, and later, she became a social worker and taught English to immigrant children. Besides work, Amelia had one hobby. She enjoyed watching airplane stunt shows, which were popular in the 1920’s. Then one day, she took 10-minute plane ride and knew what her vocation would be she would learn to fly.
After 10 hours of instruction and several crashes, Amelia was ready to fly. She made her first solo flight in 1921. By the next year, Amelia had saved enough money to buy her own plane. In1928, she flew with two other pilots from the United States to England. Though Amelia was just a passenger, she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic. The plane they flew in was ‘The Friendship’, and the trip was made on June 17-18th 1928.
After this, Amelia became very famous. In May 1932, she crossed the Atlantic alone, and set a new transatlantic crossing record of 13 hours, 30 minutes. Several years later, she became the first woman to fly from California to Hawaii. Amelia’s last flight began in June 1937. However, the American Coast Guard lost track of the plane and it was never found. No one knows what really happened, and Amelia Earhart’s disappearance remains a mystery to this day.
Pearl S. Buck was a great writer who was ‘absorbed in the wonder of earth’. Fittingly her greatest work was ‘The Good Earth’. This novel tells the tale of a poor Chinese peasant and his love for the earth. It was an American bestseller and won the Pulitzer Prize.
Pearl S. Buck was born in West Virginia, but she spent her youth in China. She raised her voice for the children of American fathers and Asian mothers, who were often abandoned. She also took an active interest in mentally retarded children; her own daughter was mentally retarded. She won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1938.
Hercule Poirot often tapped his forehead and said “These little gray cells. It is up to them – as you say over here”. Hercule Poirot was the Belgian detective with the egg shaped head, created by Agatha Christie. Poirot appears in Christie’s first detective novel, ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’. Miss Marple was Christie’s other famous fictional detective.
Christie’s father died, when she was a child. Her mother encouraged her to write at a very early age. In 56 years, Christie wrote 66 detective novels. She entertained more people for more hours at a time than any other writer of her generation.
American women can never forget Alice Paul and her fights for women’s rights. Alice Paul was born in New Jersey. Alice turned politically active while studying in London, and joined the movement for women’s right to vote. She was jailed and went on a hunger strike.
Alice Paul returned to the United States, and threw herself into the American women’s struggle for the right to vote. She served as the Chair of the Congressional Committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. However, she left the party, and joined the Congressional Union of Woman Suffrage. The party later became the National Women’s Party. This party used dramatic tactics, and even picketed the White House. Alice was jailed, and went on a hunger strike in protest. Women won the right to vote in 1920. Thereafter, Alice Paul fought to gain equal rights for women, until she was felled by a stroke in 1974.
Eleanor Roosevelt was the niece of the U.S president Theodore Roosevelt. However, her ‘plain looks and lack of manners’, troubled her. Eleanor married a distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and turned into a passionate social activist. She campaigned to put a stop to child labour, establish minimum wages and pass laws to protect workers. Eleanor was elected director of the ‘Bureau of Women’s Activities’ by the Democratic National Committee. In 1932, she played a key role in Franklin’s successful bid for presidency.
Eleanor became the longest serving First Lady of the United States. She gave lectures and radio broadcasts and wrote a column in a daily newspaper. She fought for the rights of the blacks. Eleanor was elected as the head of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. U.S President Harry S. Truman called her the first lady of the world. Such were her contributions to humanity.
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