Entries in grey refer to aviation and world events achievements not specific to women.
Entries in white refer to women's achievements.
Birthdates of female pilots/groundcrew, etc. are not given individual entries, but listed in the first entry for each woman.
Reference works are cited by code numbers, identified in the Bibliography.
1929 Schneider Air Race
Name
Date(s)
Notes
Bibliography
1920
1920
1920
1920
.
January 16, 1920
Sunday
Prohibition goes into effect, catapulting gangsters like Al Capone into the limelight, and leading to the rise of organized crime.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
November 9, 1920
American.
Bessie Coleman, unable to find someone in the US to train a black woman pilot, receives her passport on this day, as she intends to take lessons in France. She has been studying French for some time in preparation. Black millionaire newspaper proprietor Robert Abbott and his The Chicago Defender are her sponsors.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
November 20, 1920
American.
Bessie Coleman boards the SS Imperator, a 50,000 ton ocean liner headed for France.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
November 25, 1920
American.
The SS Imperator, and passenger Bessie Coleman, arrive in France.
Pl-1
1921
1921
1921
1921
Bessie Coleman
June 15, 1921
American.
Bessie Coleman receives a pilot's license fron the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). She had studied at the Ecole d'Aviation des Freres Caudron, at Le Crotoy in Somme, near Rouen. Her first lessons are in a 27-ft biplane, a Nieuport Type 82.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
September 16, 1921
American.
Bessie Coleman boards a ship to return to the US.
Pl-1
1922
1922
1922
1922
Bessie Coleman
February 28, 1922
American.
Bessie Coleman arrives in France aboard the SS Paris, for a three-month tour of Europe. She will visit France and Germany, flying planes and being filmed doing so.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
August 27, 1922
American.
Bessie Coleman is to give a flying demonstration in the United States, at Glenn Curtiss Field in Garden City, Long Island. Due to bad weather, her performance is postponted to Labor Day.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
September 3, 1922
American.
Coleman performs the first public flight by an African-American woman in the United States. Black stuntman Hubert Fauntleroy Julian will perform a parachute jump from her plane
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
October 15, 1922
American.
Coleman performs the first public flight by an African-American woman in Chicago. Adult tickets $1, children 25 cents.
Pl-1
1923
1923
1923
1923
Bessie Coleman
February 4, 1923
Sunday
American.
Coleman, who had recently purchases a Jenny, sets out to fly it to Santa Monica, and crashes, resulting in a fractured leg and three broken ribs. She will be in hospital for three months.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
May 10, 1923
Sunday
American.
Coleman leaves the hospital.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
Labor Day, 1923
Sunday
American.
Bessie Coleman is to give a performancer at an air show in Columbus, Ohio, but bad weather postpones the show.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
September 9, 1923
Sunday
American.
Bessie Coleman performs in an airshow in Columbus, Ohio. (There are other, white performers there as well). 10,000 audience members watch.
Pl-1
1925
1925
1925
1925
Bessie Coleman
May, 1925
Sunday
American.
Bessie Coleman has spent a year on the ground. In this month she returns to Texas from Chicago to resume her flying career.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
June 18, 1925
American.
The Houston Post-Dispatch states in an article that Bessie Coleman was "attracting attention all over the country for her efforts to interest African Americans in Aviation.".
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
June 19, 1925
American.
First black woman pilot Bessie Coleman flies in an airshow in Texas. (60 years earlier to the day, in Galveston, TX, Union troops announced the end of the Civil War. This was Juneteenth.)
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
August 29, 1925
American.
Bessie Coleman had promised that a parachustist would perform a jump from her plane, but Elizia Delworth backs out. The next Sunday, Coleman herself will parachute out of a plane piloted by another.
Pl-1
Melli Beese
December 22, 1925
German.
Melli Beese commits suicide by shooting herself with a revolver. She is 39 years old. Unable to recovery financially after the war, aviation is closed to her, and she is too depressed to continue.
Le-1
1926
1926
1926
1926
Bessie Coleman
February 3, 1926
American.
Bessie Coleman writes to the Norman Studios in Arlington, Florida, explaining that she's written a movie of her life and would like to see it produced. R.E. Norman white, was an independent director who made films featuring positive images of blacks on screen. [Due to lack of funds, the movie will not be made.]
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
April 27, 1926
American.
Bessie Coleman boards a train for Jacksonville, Florida, where she is to perform in an airshow.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
April 28, 1926
American.
Bessie Coleman's plane, purchased just a few days earlier through funds provided by a supporter, is a Jenny biplane which could produce only 60 horsepower, rather than the 90 described in the specs. William Wills, 24-years-old, a white mechanic employed by the Curtiss company, flies it down.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
April 30, 1926
Friday
American.
Bessie Coleman, John Betsch (publicity manager for the Negro Welfare League), and William Wills go to Paxton Field for a practice flight. (The airshow itself will not be until May 1).
Wills pilots the craft, Coleman is in the rear, seatbelt undone, as she wants to be able to look over the side to scope out sights to land via parachute - she intends to make a jump during her show.
The old plane begins a nose dive from 3,000 feet. At 2,000 feet, Bessie Coleman falls out of the plane to her death. The plane itself crashes in a nearby farm field. Wills is trapped in the wreckage, and before he can be rescued, John Betsch lights a cigarette. A spark ignites gasoline fumes from the plane, and Wills is burned to death in the wreckage. Betsch is arrested, but it is later deemed that he did not deliberately set fire to the plane.
Investigators find a wrench in the wreckage of Coleman's plane - jammed into the control gears. It is assumed that Wills had accidently left the wrench in a spot, such that when he tilted the plane, it slid into the gears and jammed them.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
May 2, 1926
American.
Bessie Coleman's bdy is taken by train to Orlando, Florida. Jacksonville citizens pay the $360 cost.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
May 5, 1926
Wednesday
American.
Bessie Coleman's body arrives in Chicago via train.
Pl-1
Bessie Coleman
May 7, 1926
Wednesday
American.
The funeral for Bessie Coleman is held at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago. 3,500 mourners gather on the sidewalks outside the church.
Pl-1
1927
1927
1927
1927
Charles Lindbergh
May 20, 1927
American.
Charls Lingdbergh starts off on his solo flight across the Atlantic.
Le-1
Lyubov "Luba" Golanchikova
June 1927
Russian.
Luba and her husband Boris Philipoff (at one point the "Bread King of Russia"), are living in New York City, under the name Philips. Luba flies a trimotor Fokker in an attempt to set an altitude record over New York. However, a male pilot, Lieutenant W. L. Stulzt, pilots the takeoff and landing.
Le-1
Lyubov "Luba" Golanchikova
August 1927
Russian.
The New York Times reports that Luba is planning an Atlantic flight "for the glory of it." She had signed a 1-year contract with Oliver Morosco, a theatrical producer. However, she is not able to bring the flight to fruition.
Le-1
1928
1928
1928
1928
Amelia Earhart
June 17, 1928 Sunday
American.
The Friendship, with Amelia Earhart as passenger, Wilmer Stutz as pilot and Louis Gordon as mechanic, takes off from Trepassey, Newfoundland, Canada.
Ea-1
Amelia Earhart
June 18, 1928 Sunday
American.
The Friendship, with Amelia Earhart as passenger, Wilmer Stutz as pilot and Louis Gordon as mechanic, lands in Burry Port, Wales. The trio are feted for a few days in Wales and England.
Ea-1
1929
1929
1929
1929
Amelia Earhart
May, 1929
American.
Amelia Earhart earns her air transport license. She is only the fourth woman to earn such a license, joining Ruth Nichols, Phoebe Omlie and Lady Mary Heath.
