Charles Lindbergh, aviator, author and inventor, dies.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 ¿ August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist. Lindbergh, a 25-year-old U.S. Air Mail pilot, emerged from virtual obscurity to almost instantaneous world fame as the result of his Orteig Prize-winning solo non-stop flight on May 20¿21, 1927, from Roosevelt Field located in Garden City on New York's Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France, a distance of nearly 3,600 statute miles (5,800 km), in the single-seat, single-engine monoplane Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh, a U.S. Army reserve officer, was also awarded the nation's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his historic exploit.

August 26, 2011