Charles Lindbergh

Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born in Detroit, MichiganMichiganMichigan is a state of the United States nearly surrounded by the Great Lakes and made up of the Upper and Lower peninsulas; its capital is Lansing and its largest city is Detroit. It was admitted to the Union on January 26, 1837, as the 26th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 10,077,331.Open the full entry, on February 4, 1902, and was brought to Little Falls, MinnesotaMinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the north-central United States and the most northerly of the 48 contiguous states; its capital is St. Paul and its largest city is Minneapolis. It was admitted to the Union on May 11, 1858, as the 32nd state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,706,494.Open the full entry, by his parents at five weeks old; he grew up on a 110-acre farm on the Mississippi River outside the town. His father, Charles August Lindbergh, was later elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and represented Minnesota’s 6th district for 10 years; his mother was named Evangeline. His parents never divorced but were estranged; after their home burned in 1905 they lived apart, and a smaller house rebuilt on the original foundation became a summer residence for Lindbergh and his mother.⁠[1][2]

In fall 1920 Lindbergh enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in Madison; he left after three semesters. He then attended the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation’s flying school in Lincoln, NebraskaNebraskaNebraska is a state of the United States bordered by South Dakota to the north, Iowa and Missouri to the east, Kansas to the south, and Colorado to the southwest, with its panhandle bordering Wyoming to the west; its capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha. It was admitted to the Union on March 1, 1867, as the 37th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,961,504.Open the full entry, where in April 1922 he made his first flight, as a passenger. He went on to work the barnstorming circuit and bought a Curtiss JN-4D “Jenny.”⁠[1]

In 1924 he entered the Army flying school, training in TexasTexasTexas is a U.S. state in the south-central United States, with its capital at Austin and its largest city Houston. It was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 29,145,505 residents.Open the full entry for a year (1924–25), and graduated at the top of his class. He then became chief pilot at Lambert Field in St. Louis for the Robertson Aircraft Corporation, which was to operate the St. Louis–Chicago airmail route; in 1926 he flew that route.⁠[1][2]

In 1919 Raymond Orteig offered the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first nonstop flight between New York City and Paris. With backing from St. Louis businessmen, Lindbergh had Ryan Airlines of San Diego build the single-engine monoplane Spirit of St. Louis, based on a standard Ryan M-2 with Donald A. Hall as principal designer; the wingspan and fuselage were extended, the cockpit was moved rearward and the fuel tank was placed at the center of gravity.⁠[3][2]

Lindbergh took off alone from New York at 7:52 a.m. on May 20, 1927, and landed at Le Bourget Field near Paris on May 21 after 33 hours and 30 minutes, having flown 3,610 miles; a crowd of about 100,000 greeted him, and he won the Orteig Prize. That year he received the Medal of Honor by a special act of Congress.⁠[1][3][2]

Lindbergh returned to the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry aboard the U.S.S. Memphis on June 11, 1927, and was welcomed in Washington, D.C., and New York City. From July 20 to October 23 he toured the United States. On December 13 he flew nonstop from Washington to Mexico City and went on to Central America, Colombia, Venezuela and Puerto Rico, returning nonstop from Havana to St. Louis. On April 30, 1928, he flew the Spirit of St. Louis from St. Louis to Washington, D.C., and presented it to the Smithsonian InstitutionSmithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is a museum, education and research institution created by the U.S. Congress in 1846 with the bequest of the English scientist James Smithson. Based in Washington, D.C., it runs museums such as the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History, as well as the National Zoo.Open the full entry.⁠[3]

On May 27, 1929, at the Morrow family home in New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the eastern United States on the Atlantic Ocean, bordered by New York State, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, with the Hudson River forming its northeastern boundary and the Delaware River its western boundary; its capital is Trenton and its largest city is Newark. One of the original 13 colonies, it became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 18, 1787, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 9,288,994.Open the full entry, Lindbergh married Anne Morrow, daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico. He taught her to fly; she made her first solo flight on August 23, 1929, and served as his copilot and navigator. In 1931 she was radio operator and navigator on their survey flight through Canada and AlaskaAlaskaAlaska is the largest U.S. state by area and borders Canada to the east; its capital is Juneau and its largest city is Anchorage. Alaska was admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959, as the 49th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 733,391.Open the full entry to Asia to identify potential air routes.⁠[4][1][5]

At about 9 p.m. on March 1, 1932, the Lindberghs’ 20-month-old son, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., was taken from his second-floor nursery at their home in Hopewell, New Jersey. Ransom notes demanded $50,000, which an intermediary, John Condon, paid, but the boy was not returned; on May 12 his body was found less than five miles from the Lindbergh home.⁠[6][1]

The day after the body was found, President Herbert HooverHerbert HooverHerbert Hoover (1874–1964) was an American mining engineer, humanitarian and politician who led food relief for Europe during and after World War I, served as U.S. secretary of commerce from 1921 to 1928 and was the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933, a term dominated by the Great Depression.Open the full entry ordered national investigative agencies to assist state authorities, with the Bureau, today’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, taking the federal lead. Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German carpenter living in the Bronx, was arrested on September 19, 1934, convicted in 1935 and executed in April 1936. In response, Congress gave the Bureau responsibility for solving kidnappings.⁠[6][1][2]

In December 1935 the Lindberghs moved to England to escape threats against their second son, Jon, and the publicity. About six months later, at the invitation of an American military attaché, they traveled to Germany, where Lindbergh assessed its rearmament and visited military aviation centers. When he returned to Germany in October 1938, Hermann Göring presented him, on Adolf Hitler’s behalf, with the Service Cross of the German Eagle, a decoration that drew considerable criticism.⁠[1][7][5]

Lindbergh praised the Luftwaffe’s fighter and bomber designs and argued that “a Nazi Germany lies, at present, between Communistic Russia and a demoralized France.” The Minnesota Historical Society’s MNopedia article notes that he praised the Nazi government even as it persecuted Jews before the war.⁠[7][1]

In 1940–41 Lindbergh gave speeches calling for American neutrality in World War II. Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry judges that his public statements were a prime impetus for the creation of the America First Committee in 1940; he was its most prominent spokesperson, and the group, with about 800,000 members, opposed American aid to the Allies. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s encyclopedia notes that he gave more than a dozen speeches for the committee.⁠[2][7][8]

After President Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) was an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 to 1945, the only president elected four times; he led the country through the Great Depression and World War II and greatly expanded the federal government’s role through the New Deal.Open the full entry compared him to Clement Vallandigham, Lindbergh resigned his Air Corps Reserve commission in April 1941.⁠[7][2]

On September 11, 1941, at the Des Moines Coliseum in Des Moines, IowaIowaIowa is a state in the Midwestern United States; its capital and largest city is Des Moines. It was admitted to the Union on December 28, 1846, as the 29th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 3,190,369.Open the full entry, Lindbergh gave a speech titled “Who are the War Agitators?” in which he named “the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt administration” as the “war agitators” pushing the nation toward war. Critics and the press accused him of antisemitism and of supporting Nazi Germany, which he denied; the America First Committee issued a statement that he was not antisemitic and that it was the victim of a smear campaign. Encyclopaedia Britannica judges that public support for him evaporated and that the speech was denounced as anti-Semitic and un-American. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s encyclopedia describes the speech as containing “repeated antisemitic lies based on conspiratorial ideas about Jewish influence” and judges that it damaged the America First Committee’s reputation.⁠[8][7][1]

After Pearl Harbor Lindbergh helped the Allies, working as a civilian consultant to the Ford Motor CompanyFord Motor CompanyFord Motor Company is a multinational automaker headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, founded by Henry Ford in Detroit in 1903, with two vehicle brands, Ford and Lincoln. With the Model T and the moving assembly line it ushered in the mass production of automobiles. Its 2025 revenue was about $187.3 billion, it has about 169,000 employees worldwide, and as of October 2026 Jim Farley is its president and chief executive officer.Open the full entry and the United Aircraft Corporation. In April 1944 he was sent to the Pacific, ostensibly to investigate performance problems with the F4U Corsair, and United Aircraft named him a technical representative in the South Pacific. Although officially barred from firing weapons, he flew about 50 combat missions as a civilian, mostly in P-38 Lightnings, and was credited with shooting down a Japanese “Sonia” attack aircraft. He later accompanied a navy technical mission to Europe that studied German aviation developments.⁠[7][1][2]

After the war Lindbergh lived in ConnecticutConnecticutConnecticut is a U.S. state in the New England region. Its capital is Hartford and its largest city is Bridgeport (2010 census). It entered the Union on January 9, 1788, as the 5th state, and had a population of 3,605,944 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry and then HawaiiHawaiiHawaii is a U.S. state consisting of a group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean; its capital is Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu. Hawaii was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, as the 50th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 1,455,271.Open the full entry. He consulted for Pan American World Airways and the U.S. Department of Defense, served on Pan Am’s board of directors and sat on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and other aeronautical boards. In 1954 President Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) was an American army general and politician who served as supreme commander of Allied forces in western Europe during World War II and as the 34th president of the United States, a Republican, from 1953 to 1961.Open the full entry appointed him a brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve “for his services to the government.”⁠[2][7][1][5]

His 1953 book The Spirit of St. Louis won the Pulitzer Prize (the MNopedia chronology gives 1954 for the award). In later life he devoted himself to protecting the environment; the MNopedia chronology dates the start of this work to 1964. His last public appearance came in September 1973, when he dedicated the new visitor center at the Charles A. Lindbergh Historic Site in Little Falls, Minnesota.⁠[5][1]

Lindbergh died of lymphatic cancer at his home in Hana, Maui, Hawaii, on August 26, 1974, at the age of 72. He was buried in the churchyard of the Hoomau Palapala Congregational Church beyond Hana; the plaque on his grave reads: “I shall take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost ends of the sea.”⁠[1][9]

His wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001), was a writer whose books include North to the Orient (1935), Listen! The Wind (1938) and Gift from the Sea (1955). They had six children: Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. (1930–1932), Jon Lindbergh (born 1932), Land Morrow Lindbergh (born 1937), Anne Spencer Lindbergh Perrin (1940–1993), Scott Lindbergh (born 1942) and Reeve Lindbergh (born 1945).⁠[4][5]

Beginning in the 1950s Lindbergh fathered seven children with three German women and kept them secret for the rest of his life; in 2003 two of the children made the relationship public.⁠[1]

Lindbergh’s books include The Culture of Organs (1938), written with Alexis Carrel.⁠[2]

The Spirit of St. Louis is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum as a gift of the Spirit of St. Louis Corporation. His childhood home in Little Falls, Minnesota, is open to the public as the Charles Lindbergh House of the Minnesota Historical Society, which presents him as an environmental activist, inventor and aviation pioneer.⁠[3][10]

Encyclopaedia Britannica judges that Lindbergh’s strategic vision was “blinkered by his belief that aviation was a uniquely Western innovation,” noting that his 1940 claim that no Asian nation posed a serious aviation threat was undermined by Pearl Harbor a little more than a year later.⁠[7]

Charles Lindbergh House: Official website: https://www.mnhs.org/lindbergh (opens in a new window).⁠[10]