Charles Lindbergh | |
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Photo by Harris & Ewing
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Born |
Charles Augustus Lindbergh February 4, 1902 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
Died | August 26, 1974 Kipahulu, Maui, Hawaii, U.S. |
(aged 72)
Cause of death | Complications of Lymphoma |
Resting place | Palapala Ho'omau Church, Kipahulu, Maui, Hawaii |
Nationality | American |
Education | Sidwell Friends School Redondo Union High School Little Falls High School University of Wisconsin–Madison (did not graduate) |
Occupation | Aviator, author, inventor, explorer, activist |
Known for | First solo transatlantic flight (1927) |
Spouse(s) | Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1929–1974) (his death) |
Children |
With Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. Jon Lindbergh Land Morrow Lindbergh Anne Spencer Lindbergh (Perrin) Scott Lindbergh Reeve Lindbergh (Brown) With Brigitte Hesshaimer: Dyrk Hesshaimer Astrid Hesshaimer Bouteuil David Hesshaimer With Marietta Hesshaimer: Vago Hesshaimer Christoph Hesshaimer. With Valeska (surname unknown): a son (name unknown) a daughter (name unknown) |
Parent(s) |
Charles August Lindbergh Evangeline Lodge Land Lindbergh |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service/branch |
United States Army United States Air Force |
Years of service | 1925–1941, 1954–1974 |
Rank | Brigadier General |
Awards |
Medal of Honor (1927) Distinguished Flying Cross (1927) |
Signature |
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974), nicknamed Slim,Lucky Lindy, and The Lone Eagle, was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, explorer, and environmental activist. In 1927, at age 25, he went from obscurity as a U.S. Air Mail pilot to instantaneous world fame by making his Orteig Prize–winning nonstop flight from Long Island, New York, to Paris. He made the 33 1⁄2-hour, 3,600 statute miles (5,800 km) alone in a single-engine purpose-built Ryan monoplane, Spirit of St. Louis. He was the 19th person to make a Transatlantic flight, but Lindbergh's flight covered a far longer distance. An officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve, he received the United States' highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for the feat.
His achievement powerfully boosted interest in commercial aviation and air mail, and he himself devoted much time and effort to promoting such interest. In March 1932 his infant son, Charles Jr., was kidnapped and murdered in what was widely called the "Crime of the Century" and described by H. L. Mencken as "the biggest story since the resurrection"; the case prompted the United States Congress to make kidnapping a federal crime. By late 1935 the hysteria surrounding the case had driven the Lindbergh family into "voluntary exile" in Europe, from which they returned in 1939.
Before the United States formally entered World War II, some accused Lindbergh of being a fascist sympathizer. He supported the isolationist America First Committee, which opposed American aid to Britain in its war against Germany, and resigned his commission in the United States Army Air Forces in 1941 after President Franklin Roosevelt publicly rebuked him for his isolationist views. Nevertheless he publicly supported the US war effort after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and flew fifty combat missions in the Pacific Theater of World War II as a civilian consultant, though Roosevelt refused to reinstate his Air Corps colonel's commission. In his later years, Lindbergh became a prolific prize-winning author, international explorer, inventor, and environmentalist.