Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
December 31, 1952 In Chile, a new transit era began with the debut of trolleybus service in Valparaíso. These trolleybuses were introduced the day after the city’s trams (streetcars) had made their final runs. (Valparaíso’s longtime tram service started in 1863 with the inauguration of a horse-drawn railway; electric trams were introduced into those operations... Continue Reading →
December 30, 1824 A now-famous pedestrian bridge was opened in the city of Nuremberg in the present-day Federal Republic of Germany. (At the time of the bridge’s debut, Nuremberg was part of the district of Rezatkreis in the Kingdom of Bavaria.) This bridge, crossing the river Pegnitz, took only four months to build. The classification... Continue Reading →
December 27, 1895 Construction on a record-setting bridge in the Republic of Colombia was completed. The Puente de Occidente (Spanish for “Bridge of the West”), which took eight years to build, is located in northwestern Colombia’s department (administrative subdivision) of Antioquia. The bridge owes its name to the fact that it is in that department’s... Continue Reading →
December 26, 2017 In Indonesia, a new airport rail link made its debut on the island of Java. The 33.7-mile (54.3-kilometer)-long Soekarno-Hatta Airport Railink was built to reduce travel time for individuals between South Jakarta, an administrative subdivision of Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta (officially known as the Special Capital Region of Jakarta), and the... Continue Reading →
December 23, 1950 In the midst of the Korean War, the United States Merchant Marine ship SS Meredith Victory departed North Korea’s port city of Hŭngnam carrying thousands of refugees. The evacuation holds the record as the largest-ever humanitarian rescue operation by a single ship. In December 1950, United Nations Command (UNC) troops led by the... Continue Reading →
December 20, 1935 Birchenough Bridge made its debut in what was then the British Crown colony of Southern Rhodesia (now the independent Republic of Zimbabwe). Sir Herbert Stanley, governor of Southern Rhodesia, officially opened the bridge, which was constructed across the Save River (also known as the Sabi River) to serve as a major link... Continue Reading →
December 19, 1918 Construction began on a lighthouse within the region of Tierra del Fuego that is part of Argentina. Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse was specifically built on an islet in the Beagle Channel as a navigational aid for vessels sailing to and from Ushuaia, which is one of the world’s southernmost cities. The islet where... Continue Reading →
December 18, 1970 The Audubon Parkway in western Kentucky was formally opened as a toll road. The inaugural ceremony for this newest addition to Kentucky’s parkways network took place on a windy Friday afternoon at a toll plaza located 14 miles (22.5 kilometers) west of the city of Owensboro. Approximately 300 people attended the event,... Continue Reading →
December 17, 2010 In southwestern India’s North Malabar region, the foundation stone was laid for a new airport in the district of Kannur in the state of Kerala. This inaugural event was attended by what the daily newspaper Hindu characterized as “a massive turnout of people from different parts of the district.” The array of... Continue Reading →
December 16, 1895 In Australia, the second race of the now-famous one-day road bicycle classic between Melbourne and Warrnambool in the British colony of Victoria took place. (Victoria became one of the states of the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.) The first of those bicycle races had occurred just a little over 10 weeks... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 