Lindbergh, Charles A. (1902–1974)

CHARLES A. LINDBERGH was a pioneer of aviation who was the most famous man in the world at age 25 but parlayed that into only small political success. Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born in his grandparents' home in Detroit, Michigan, on February 4, 1902, the son of Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr., and Evangeline Lodge (Land) Lindbergh.

Lindbergh was raised on a farm outside Little Falls, Minnesota, on the Mississippi River, where his father, a Swedish immigrant, had settled fresh from law school. Charles, Sr., served 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican. (He ended his political career in opposition to World War I, a paradigm his son would follow.) Lindbergh graduated from Little Falls High School in 1918. He attended the University ...