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Amelia Earhart’s Disappearance Still Captivates (July 2)

Even today, there is speculation on the disappearance of Amelia Earhart and fellow flight navigator Fred Noonan.

July 2, 2026

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Whatever happened to aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart? On this day in 1937, she seemingly vanished…into thin air. Even to this day, people are still searching for her.

1937 – Amelia Earhart Disappears

Amelia Earhart in the cockpit of a plane. — Amealia Earhart *(Wikimedia Commons)*

Known for setting flying records, American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart and fellow flight navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared on this day in 1937. They were attempting to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe. The Lockheed Model 10 Electra disappeared while they were over central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.

Many theories have emerged about what happened on that day. These theories include:

Running out of fuel and sinking in the middle of the sea
Landing safely on the Gardner Islands but then perishing
Landing the plane safely on the island of Saipan, but then were captured and executed
That the two were really spies for FDR
Earhart may have survived, then moved to New Jersey, changed her name and then re-married

Search efforts began one hour after Earhart’s last recorded message. For three days the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard searched the area near Howland Island but came up with nothing. It was the most intensive and costliest search at that time ranging around $4 million. Earhart’s husband, George Putnam financed his own search as well. Earhart was declared legally dead on January 5, 1939.

The mystery has been kept alive with additional searches by experts. The most recent was done in 2024 by Tony Romeo, a deep-sea explorer. His expedition entailed searching around Howland Island to find Earhart’s plane but did not find any evidence of it.

On September 26, 2025, President Donald Trump ordered that all government records about Earhart be declassified and released. The mystery goes on.

1945 – Walmart Opens Its Doors

Sam Walton's first store in Bentonville, Arkansas. — Sam Walton’s first store serves as the Walmart Visitor’s Center. *(Wikimedia/Bobak Ha’Eri; image cropped)*

Long before Walmart became an institution, its founder, Sam Walton bought a Ben Franklin store in Bentonville, Arkansas in 1945. His focus early on was to sell a high volume of merchandise at prices much lower than his competitors. His sales increased 45% during the store’s first year and by its fifth year, it was making $250,000 in revenue.

After losing the lease on the building, Walton opened Walton’s Five and Dime also in Bentonville. (Today it serves as a historical museum for the company.)

On this day in 1962, Walton opened the first Walmart Discount City Store in Rogers, Arkansas. By 1967, the business expanded to 24 stores in the state. Today, Walmart operates over 10,370 stores worldwide and has 2,100,000 employees.