Born in 1905, at the start of the 20th Century, in Houston, Texas, Howard Hughes was the only child of Howard Robard Hughes, an oil wildcatter who made a considerable fortune patenting a revolutionary, rock-penetrating oil drill bit, and Dallas heiress Allene Gano Hughes, who taught Howard not to socialize with anyone who might be carrying disease causing germs. Ironically, during a childhood illness, Hughes lost much of his hearing and was plagued by a continual ringing in his ears throughout his life.

Howard demonstrated genius early on in math and mechanical engineering and by age 11, he had constructed what was likely the first wireless broadcast set in Houston.

At the age of 14, Howard took his first flying lessons and a life-long passion was born. As a child, he declared that he would one day be the world’s best pilot, the world’s best filmmaker and the world’s richest man – and he remained obsessed with flying, movies and wealth throughout his lifetime.

In 1922, Howard’s mother, Allene, passed away, followed in 1924 by the death of his father. At age 18, Hughes was now an orphan. He inherited an estate valued at close to a million dollars.

In 1925, Howard fought for control of his father’s company, Hughes Tool. Since he was not yet 21, he had to go to court to be declared a legal adult. Winning the judgement, Hughes became the company head, but rather than run it, he soon left for Jazz Age Hollywood to pursue a career in film, financed by the company’s substantial earnings.

Throughout the late 1920s, Hughes worked feverishly on his epic, “Hell’s Angels,” acquiring the largest private air force in the world in the making of the film. During filming, Hughes did many of his own stunts and even crashed his scout plane, breaking his cheekbone. Chasing after perfection, at the end of production, Hughes decided to re-shoot the entire film to accommodate the latest movie technology: sound. The film ultimately cost a record $3.8 million, a stunning revelation after the Stock Market Crash of 1929

“Hell’s Angels” was released in 1930 in the midst of the Great Depression to resounding success and box office records. It rocketed the then-bit-actress Jean Harlow to superstar status. He followed that film with “The Age For Love,” “The Front Page,” “Cock of the Air,” the legendary “Scarface” and “Sky Devils.”

Having developed an indelible passion for aviation, and believing it to be the industry of the future, Hughes founded Hughes Aircraft in 1932, and hired the best and brightest engineers in the country to push aviation to new heights of speed and efficiency

In 1935, Hughes set the new air speed record, flying at an unprecedented 352 mph in the H-1 airplane he designed. One year later, he set another record, this time for transcontinental flight, journeying from Los Angeles to New Jersey in a then-speedy 9 hours and 27 minutes.

One of Hughes’ most famous flights took place in July of 1938, when he set a new record for flying around the world in 3 days, 19 hours and 17 minutes. Upon his return to Manhattan, he was greeted with a ticker tape parade down Broadway

By the late 1930’s and early 40s Hughes has become a Hollywood legend, romantically linked with a number of leading screen stars, including Bettie Davis, Ginger Rogers, Rita Hayworth and perhaps most importantly, Katharine Hepburn, with whom he had a three-year relationship and Ava Gardner, with whom Howard Hughes had an on-again-off-again tumultuous relationship for two decades.

It was 1939 when Hughes bought up a majority of TWA stock and took over the airliner. Making a deal with Lockheed, he asked their engineers to secretly design a plane that could out-perform any currently in service and provide a more comfortable flying experience. The result was The Constellation, which would be a tremendous success for more than a decade.

During World War II, Howard Hughes hoped to transform Hughes Aircraft into a major supplier of planes for the war effort but his ambitious experimental planes were never successful.

In the mid 1940s, as part of his effort for the war, Hughes began a massive project to build the largest airplane in history – made mostly of wood. Known to Hughes by the mythic title The Hercules, it was ridiculed by detractors as “The Spruce Goose.”

In 1943, Hughes produced and directed “The Outlaw,” a Western starring Jane Russell in a specially engineered push-up bra that caused the film to be banned leading to a protracted battle with the censors.

In 1944, Hughes was rumored to have suffered from the first of several mental breakdowns, showing signs of what is now known as obsessive-compulsive disorder and deep-seated paranoia.

1946 brought tragedy to Hughes when he crashed his experimental XF-11 reconnaissance plane into a Beverly Hills house, resulting in devestating, near-fatal injuries that would cause him pain for the rest of his life.

In 1947, Senator Owen Brewster of the Senate War Investigating Committee – a close friend of Hughes’ rival at Pan Am, Juan Trippe – announced that he was investigating Hughes for corruption. When Hughes fought back, revealing that Brewster had illicitly asked him to merge with Pan Am to avoid trouble, the Committee halted its investigation.

Later in 1947, Howard Hughes flew The Hercules in its one and only demonstration flight. The plane still holds the record to this day for the flying machine with the longest wingspan.

In 1953, Howard Hughes founded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, one of the largest non-profit medical institutions in the United States.

Having perceived the imminent arrival of the Jet Age for years, in 1956, Hughes and TWA bought a fleet of Boeing 707s.

In 1958, Hughes gave his last public interview, avoiding the press for the next two decades.

In 1961, Hughes expanded further, founding Hughes Space and Communications, a designer and builder of commercial satellites, including the world’s first synchronous communications satellite, Syncom.

In 1966, Hughes sold his TWA stock for $546 million and moved to Las Vegas, where in the late 60s and 70, he turned his attention to buying hotels, casinos and land. Rumors of his eccentric behavior began to circulate widely and when the Desert Inn Hotel where he was living tried to evict him, he simply bought it and continued his reclusive life there.

Hughes was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973 but was too ill to attend the ceremony.

Howard Hughes died in April, 1976 on an airplane en route from Acapulco, Mexico, with assets rumored to be worth $2 million but estimated at about $360 million by the IRS. He had become so reclusive and unrecognizable that the Medical Examiner was forced to lift Hughes’ fingerprints to assure it was really he who had died.