Amelia Earhart vanished.
Amelia Mary Earhart ( [ ˈɛərhɑrt ] July 24 , 1897 -- disappeared July 2 , 1937 ) was an American aviation pioneer and author . During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10 Electra , Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island .