Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
In 2001, Mark L. Polansky became the first Korean-American to travel into outer space. He had been born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1956. His mother Edith is of Korean descent, and his late father Irving was Jewish. When he was only 13, Mark Polansky began to develop a strong interest in spaceflight while watching... Continue Reading →
May 28, 1893 A year after the Belgium-based cycling race known as Liège-Bastogne-Liège made its debut, the second edition of that one-day competition took place. The 1893 race covered a total of 155.3 miles (250 kilometers), with the course running from the city of Liège to the municipality of Bastogne and then back to Liège... Continue Reading →
May 27, 2016 The final and easternmost section of the Goldsboro Bypass, a bypass route of U.S. Route 70 (US 70) in North Carolina, was officially dedicated. In its entirety, this bypass route covers a total of 21.7 miles (34.9 kilometers). The westernmost part of the route starts just west of North Carolina Highway 581... Continue Reading →
May 26, 2017 The Dhola-Sadiya Bridge was opened in the state of Assam in northeastern India, This beam bridge, crossing the Lohit River (a major tributary of the Brahmaputra River), connects the village of Dhola in the south with the town of Sadiya to the north. The Dhola-Sadiya Bridge was formally inaugurated by Narendra Modi,... Continue Reading →
In 2008, Christine Igisomar became the first Chamorro woman to graduate from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. (The Chamorros are indigenous Pacific Islanders from the Mariana Archipelago.) Igisomar followed in the footsteps of Juan T. Salas, who was the first Chamorro man to graduate from that military service academy; he graduated from there in 1968,... Continue Reading →
May 21, 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh, flying his plane "The Spirit of St. Louis," arrived at Le Bourget Field near Paris, France, 33-and-a-half hours after he departed from Roosevelt Airfield in Garden City, New York. That long journey made the pilot widely known as "The Lone Eagle" the first person to complete a solo non-stop,... Continue Reading →
May 20, 1981 In north-central Alabama, a ceremony was held for the opening of a segment of Interstate 65 (I-65) located south of Birmingham. This 11.7-mile (11.8-kilometer) portion of I-65 had been built between the Birmingham suburbs of Alabaster and Hoover, and the debut of that link was welcomed with a great deal of fanfare.... Continue Reading →
May 19, 1993 In the Republic of Slovenia, the replacement for a longtime bridge in that European country’s capital city of Ljubljana was opened for public use. The current version of the Kavšek Bridge, just like its predecessor, crosses Glinšĉica Creek in Ljubljana’s neighborhood of Podutik. Nearly two years before the debut of this new... Continue Reading →
May 18, 1940 On New Zealand’s South Island, an airport located in the community of Harewood (about 7.5 miles [12 kilometers] northwest of the central part of the city of Christchurch) was officially opened for commercial flights. Originally called Harewood Airport, this complex is now known worldwide as Christchurch Airport. The genesis of that airport... Continue Reading →
On Wong, who is better known today by his nickname Ah Louis (pronounced Ah-Lou-ee), was born in China in 1840. Sometime between 1856 and 1861, Ah Louis left China for California to seek his fortune. His efforts to mine for gold were unsuccessful, so he instead started working for several years as a laborer at... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 