- Born
- Died
- Birth nameCharles Augustus Lindbergh
- Nicknames
- Lucky Lindy
- Ned
- Height6′ 3″ (1.91 m)
- Charles A. Lindbergh was born on February 4, 1902 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was a writer, known for The Spirit of St. Louis (1957), Coast to Coast in 48 Hours (1929) and 40,000 Miles with Lindbergh (1928). He was married to Anne Morrow Lindbergh. He died on August 26, 1974 in Kipahulu, Maui, Hawaii, USA.
- SpouseAnne Morrow Lindbergh(May 27, 1929 - August 26, 1974) (his death, 6 children)
- In 1927, just prior to his historic flight, Lindbergh was nearly grounded by William P. MacCracken, Jr., a government aeronautics official. Lindbergh had been engaging in barnstorming and daredevil flights in government planes, and had actually wrecked several of them. Only after Lindbergh's supervisor promised to restrain his behavior did MacCracken relent and allow Lindbergh to make his historic flight.
- Had three children with German hat-maker Brigitte Hesshaimer: Dirk (born 1958), Astrid (born 1960), and David (born 1967). They managed to keep the affair secret until Astrid disclosed it in 2003, two years after both Ms. Hesshaimer and Mrs. Lindbergh had died. DNA tests have confirmed the truth of these assertions.
- His record-setting flight over the Atlantic Ocean failed to make the cover of Time Magazine in 1927. Later that year, seeking to fill in a slow news week and make up for missing the story earlier, the editors of Time created their "Man of the Year" honorific, devoting an entire issue to how influential the flight was, and making Lindy himself the first person ever to receive that title.
- During World War II, he rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the US Army Air Corps and in 1948, when the AAC separated from the army to become the US Air Force, he went along and kept that same rank. During WWII he specifically requested Pacific theater assignments only, since he had been a strong and vocal supporter and admirer of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in the 1930s.
- Prior to Pearl Harbor, Lindbergh outraged the American public by advocating America's entry into World War II on the side of Nazi Germany.
- [in a letter to Apollo 11 Commander Mike Collins] The ground shook and my chest was beating as though bombs were falling nearby. It seemed impossible for life to exist while carrying that fire. What a fantastic experience it must have been-the first man alone looking down on another celestial body, like a god of space!
- [Lindbergh, an isolationist, replying to a question about the US accommodating Adolf Hitler rather than standing up to him] {it} could maintain peace and civilization throughout the world as far into the future as we can see.
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