Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
October 7, 1834 The completion of Pennsylvania’s first state-owned railroad was celebrated with an inaugural journey of two train cars on the entire route, which covered 82 miles (132 kilometers) between the borough of Columbia and the city of Philadelphia. Those train cars were pulled along by steam locomotives respectively named Columbia and Lancaster. ... Continue Reading →
Since 2024, Dina Contella has served as International Space Station (ISS) deputy program manager at NASA. Her considerable responsibilities, which are handled here on Earth, involve helping with the day-to-day management and overall operations of that habitable satellite and microgravity laboratory. ISS, which resides in low Earth orbit (LEO), has the distinction of being both... Continue Reading →
October 5, 2001 An airport serving Palmas, the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Tocantins, made its public debut. This airport, which replaced one that had been in use for only about a decade, is located 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) from the central area of Palmas. The new airport was officially opened... Continue Reading →
October 2, 2018 In the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, a girder bridge in the city of Saskatoon. This bridge, which crosses the South Saskatchewan River, carries six lanes of McOrmond Drive and two multi-use paths. Originally called the North Commuter Parkway Bridge prior to its completion, this structure was renamed after a local 19th century... Continue Reading →
The formal efforts to develop what became the U.S. Numbered Highway System began at the annual 1924 meeting of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) in San Francisco. It was at this venue that the association approved a resolution called on the U.S. secretary of Agriculture (USDA was the “umbrella” department for the... Continue Reading →
September 30, 1973 Operations began for a rapid transit station within the Östermalm district in Sweden’s capital city of Stockholm. This station was built as part of an extension of Line 14 of the Stockholm Metro’s Metro 2 line, which would be officially designated as the Red Line during the 1990s. The station is only... Continue Reading →
Miguel Ángel Rosales Izás, an architect who has specialized in the design of bridges, was born in Guatemala City (the capital of the eponymous Central American country) in 1961. He was oldest of the four sons of Antonio Rosales and Lidia Izás. In 1984, Miguel A. Rosales earned a degree in architecture from Francisco... Continue Reading →
September 28, 1969 Operations began for an extension of the Chicago “L” rapid transit system serving the Windy City and a few of its surrounding suburbs within Cook County, Illinois. (The “L” stands for “elevated.”) The newly completed extension was named after Dan Ryan (1894-1961), who served as a member of the Cook County Board... Continue Reading →
September 25, 2009 After three months of construction, a train station in the central part of Washington State was officially opened. Icicle Station is located just one mile (1.6 kilometers) northeast of the downtown area of the city of Leavenworth. This station is served by the Amtrak-operated Empire Builder, a daily long-distance passenger train that... Continue Reading →
September 24, 1961 An ocean liner built by Cantieri Riuniti dell’Adriatico (Italian for “United Shipbuilders of the Adriatic”) for the shipping company Lloyd Triestino was launched in northeastern Italy’s comune (municipality) of Monfalcone, which is located along the Gulf of Trieste. (That gulf is the northernmost region of the Adriatic Sea.) The ocean liner was... Continue Reading →
