The most famous aviator in the world vanished over the Pacific and was never found

In July 1937, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while attempting to fly around the world, last heard from searching for tiny Howland Island with fuel running low. The US Navy and Coast Guard mounted the largest air-and-sea search in history up to that point, costing an estimated $4 million, and found no confirmed trace of the plane or its crew.

— Susan Butler, East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart — Addison-Wesley, 1997
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