FIRST LIVING PERSON TO HAVE A STAMP IN HIS IMAGE

 

Charles Lindbergh worked as an airmail pilot for 10 months, flying five days a week.  On two occasions, he was forced to bail out of his plane.  On September 16, 1926, his plane ran out of fuel before he could reach Chicago and he had to jump out over Wedron, Illinois.  His 4,000-foot parachute jump was the longest recorded night jump at that time.  Two months later, on November 3, he had to bail out due to bad weather – unluckily landing on a barbed wire fence!

It was while working as an airmail pilot that Lindbergh first heard about hotel owner Raymond Orteig’s $25,000 prize for the first pilot to fly non-stop across the Atlantic.  A little over a year after beginning his airmail pilot career, Lindbergh became an international celebrity when he completed the journey in his plane the Spirit of St. Louis.