Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
A pioneering aviation event in England came to an end when Louis Paulhan finished first in a two-man London-to-Manchester plane race. The French aviator landed in Manchester early in the morning after he had begun his 186-mile flight from London. His competitor, an Englishman named Claude Grahame-White, had been hampered by everything from engine problems... Continue Reading →
Thorvald Ellegaard, one of Denmark’s leading track racing cyclists, died in the Danish community of Charlottenlund at the age of 77. He had been born on the Danish island of Funen in 1877. Ellegaard began competing as a cyclist in 1895, turning professional about three years later. He eventually established himself as an international champion... Continue Reading →
Alojz Knafelc, who created a now-iconic marker for hiking trails, died at the age of 77 in the city of Ljubljana in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (in a region that is now part of the Republic of Slovenia). Knafelc had been born in 1859 in the village of Šmihel in a section of modern-day Slovenia... Continue Reading →
Umberto Cagni, a captain in the Regia Marina (Italian Royal Navy), set a new transportation record when he and the small party he was leading reached the northernmost point achieved in polar exploration up to that time. Cagni was a close associate of Prince Luigi Amedeo, an Italian duke. When he departed from Norway in... Continue Reading →
Zhan Tianyou, an engineer who was responsible for the first railroad built in China without any foreign assistance, died in the city of Hankou in central China at the age of 57. He had born in 1861 in the present-day city of Guangzhou in southern China. In 1872, Zhan was selected to receive an education... Continue Reading →
The Chilean duo of Gonzalo Bravo and Eduardo Canales Moya maneuvered a specially equipped 1986 Suzuki Samurai off-road car up the slopes of Ojos del Salado volcano. The volcano, measuring 22,615 feet in height, is located in the Andes on the Argentina-Chile border. It is the highest active volcano in the world and also has... Continue Reading →
Robert Risson, an engineer who played a crucial role in the retention of the tram system in southeastern Australia’s city of Melbourne, was born in the town of Ma Ma Creek in northeastern Australia. Risson received a bachelor of engineering degree from the University of Queensland in 1922, and the following year he began work... Continue Reading →
Albéric “Briek” Schotte won the 32nd running of the Tour of Flanders, an annual one-day cycling race on cobbled roads in northern Belgium’s Flemish Region (also known as Flanders). The competition first took place in 1913, with the years during World War I marking the only time to date in which it has not been... Continue Reading →
Jan Smuts International Airport began operations in the city of Kempton Park, 20 miles northeast of Johannesburg, in what was then the Union of South Africa. (The Republic of South Africa came into existence nine years later.) The South African Airways’ Skymaster plane named Tafelberg was the first aircraft to touch down at the new... Continue Reading →
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak officially opened the Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS), which is currently the main long-distance bus terminal in the Southeast Asian country’s capital city. TBS is adjacent to the Bandar Tasik Selatan (BTS) railway station, a stop and interchange for KTM Komuter, Sri Petaling Line, and the Express Rail Link’s KLIA trains.... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 