Just 600 feet south of this site stood Oakland's old North Field runway, where aviatrix Amelia Earhart made history. On January 11, 1935, she flew alone from Honolulu and landed at North Field, becoming the first person to fly solo to the U.S. mainland from Hawaii. Her next ambition was to become the first woman to fly around the world. On March 17, 1937, she took off from North Field with navigators Fred Noonan and Harry Manning and technical advisor Paul Mantz on board, but after landing at Pearl Harbor, she had to call off the trip because of equipment failure during the following takeoff. She soon planned a second attempt, flying west to east this time. With Noonan as navigator, she departed Oakland on May 20, 1937, in a custom-built Lockheed Electra, making stops in Florida, Brazil, Africa, India, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. On July 2, 1937, with only 7,000 nautical miles remaining to Oakland, her plane mysteriously disappeared in the South Pacific on the way to Howland Island.
