Charles Lindbergh

Born on February 4, 1902, Charles Augustus Lindbergh was raised as an only child on a farm in Little Falls, Minnesota. His father, C. A. Lindbergh, served as a Republican congressman, and his mother, Evangeline Lodge Land, was a science teacher. While attending the University of Wisconsin, Lindbergh developed a passion for aviation, leading him to engage in barnstorming, stunt-flying, and exhibition performances. In late 1926, he decided to pursue the Ortieg Prize, a $25,000 award for the first solo transatlantic flight. On May 20, 1927, Lindbergh and his plane, "The Spirit of St. Louis," departed from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, landing at Le Bourget Airport in Paris 33 and a half hours later, after covering 3,600 miles. This monumental achievement instantly made him a global celebrity, known as "The Lone Eagle." His subsequent 2,100-mile solo flight from New York to Mexico City in 1927 led to his meeting Anne Spencer Morrow, daughter of the U.S. ambassador, whom he married in May 1929. Lindbergh's life was marked by both triumph and tragedy. The kidnapping and death of his first son, Charles Jr., in 1932, resulted in the passage of the federal Lindbergh Law. He also made significant contributions to medical research, co-inventing a blood-perfusion pump with Nobel laureate Dr. Alexis Carrel. During the 1930s, Lindbergh's public image was tarnished by his visits to Germany, his acceptance of the "Service Cross of the German Eagle" from Hermann Göring, and his isolationist, anti-interventionist remarks prior to World War II, which included statements tinged with anti-Semitism. Despite President Roosevelt's criticism, Lindbergh served as a civilian aircraft consultant during the war, flying combat missions against the Japanese and devising fuel conservation methods. A gifted writer, his autobiography, "The Spirit of St. Louis," earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1954. He was appointed brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve by President Eisenhower in 1954 and served as a consultant and director for Pan-American Airways. Lindbergh died of lymphoma cancer on August 26, 1974, in Maui, Hawaii. Posthumous DNA tests in 2003 revealed he had three additional children with a German woman, a relationship kept secret for decades.