MAY 21

Clara Barton was born on December 25, 1821, in Oxford, MA. She led a life of service from an early age, and when the Civil War broke out, Barton was an early volunteer. She started by collecting supplies for the Union soldiers, but soon became a nurse and tended to wounded soldiers in 1861, at a Washington DC hospital. Barton soon realized that she could better serve the soldiers if she was on the battlefield with them, so in 1862, she went into combat sites and tended to their injuries.

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Barton to the position of General Correspondent for the Friends of Paroled Prisoners. She helped friends and relatives locate missing soldiers. In 1869, Barton traveled to Switzerland to learn about the International Red Cross organization. When she returned to America, she lobbied for the United States to open a chapter. It took and eight years and trying to convince two presidents, but Barton was successful! The American branch of the Red Cross officially began on this day in 1881. Barton would serve as president of the organization for the first 25 years.

Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897, in Atchison, KS. Though she grew up in a family that was financially well off, her home life was not easy. Earhart had to become independent at a young age because she could not always rely on her parents. In 1918, she left college to become a nurse's aide for the Red Cross (well, that's a nifty connection to Clara Barton!) during WWI. Two years later, she went for a 10-minute plane ride, and it changed her course in life.

In 1921, Earhart bought her first airplane, and just a year later, broke the world record for highest altitude flown by a woman. In 1923, she became the 16th woman in the world to receive her pilot's license. She was the first female passenger to fly over the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, but Amelia wanted more - she wanted to be the pilot on that flight! She accomplished that goal on this day in 1932, and the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum has a video of her departing for the flight!

Earhart continued to break records in in 1935 she became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California, and the also first person to fly from Los Angeles to Mexico City. In 1937, she attempted to break the biggest barrier of all by flying around the world. This would be her last flight, as she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were never heard from after July 2nd. It is assumed that they crashed in the Pacific Ocean, but their plane was never found.

You can read more about Clara Barton and Amelia Earhart in their Who Was? books. One of my favorite picture books, Amelia and Eleanor Go For A Ride, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, is about a time when Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt met each other.

You can visit the National Parks dedicated to these pioneering women. The Clara Barton National Historic Site is in Glen Echo, MD, and the Amelia Earhart Birthplace in Atchison, KS.

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