Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
March 31, 1791 U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton contracted with architect John McComb Jr. to design the first version of Cape Henry Lighthouse on Virginia’s Atlantic shore and at the southern boundary of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. (At the time, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Lighthouse Establishment was responsible for all lighthouses in the United... Continue Reading →
In 1988, Sakhile Nyoni-Reiling became the first female pilot in the Republic of Botswana when she began flying planes for that African country’s state-owned airline Air Botswana. While born in the neighboring country of Zimbabwe, she has spent most of her life in Botswana. Nyoni’s enthusiasm for flying took root at an early age. She... Continue Reading →
In 1965, chemist Stephanie Kwolek made a pivotal discovery while working on the development of a lightweight fiber that would be durable enough to replace the steel used in tires. This discovery led to the creation of a high-strength material that has since played a lifesaving role in transportation and various other industries. Kwolek was born... Continue Reading →
March 26, 2012 The New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) opened the third and final lane of the Victoria Park Tunnel (VPT) in the city of Auckland. This lane, as with the two that first went into service the previous year, carries northbound motor vehicle traffic on that segment of New Zealand State Highway 1 (SH... Continue Reading →
March 25, 2019 Joseph L. Perkins, who served as commissioner of the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) from 1995 to 2002, died at his home in Edmond, Oklahoma, at the age of 80. (He and his wife Laurie had moved from Alaska to Oklahoma in 2015.) Perkins was born in 1938 in... Continue Reading →
March 24, 1907 After a few trial runs, one of Italy’s earliest trolleybus systems was officially inaugurated in the vicinity of Siena in the central region of the country. These trolleybuses were the first means of public transportation for that city and its surrounding area that did not rely on horses for operation. The source... Continue Reading →
In the late 1980s, Surekha Shankar Yadav became India’s first woman to operate a train. Yadav was born in the city of Satara in India’s state of Maharashtra in 1965. After graduating from St. Paul Convent High School in Satara, she earned a diploma in electrical engineering at Polytechnic Government College in the city of... Continue Reading →
In 1896, Helga Estby and her 17-year-old daughter Clara made national headlines when they walked across the United States from Spokane, Washington, to New York City. Helga had been born in 1860 in the city of Christiana (present-day Oslo) in what is now Norway (at the time part of the United Kingdoms of Sweden and... Continue Reading →
March 19, 1932 Australia’s Sydney Harbour Bridge, which carries traffic between that New South Wales (NSW) city’s central business district and North Shore area, was officially opened in ceremonies attended by hundreds of thousands of people. The lavish festivities on that Saturday for the steel through-type arch bridge included decorated floats in a nearby parade in... Continue Reading →
March 18, 1940 With the first day of spring only a couple of days away, the California Division of Highways (part of the present-day California Department of Transportation) announced that a section of U.S. Route 50 (US 50) in the Golden State that had been blocked by snow was again available for traffic. This section... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 