Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
September 30, 1958 The New York State Department of Public Works (now part of the New York State Department of Transportation), in an official notification to the government of Westchester County, confirmed that it would begin construction on a long-planned highway in that county. (Westchester County is located in the southeastern region of the Empire... Continue Reading →
On June 10, 2021, Nuria I. Fernandez was confirmed by the U.S Senate as administrator of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). This Senate confirmation by voice vote made Fernandez the first Afro-Latina to lead FTA. (An agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation [USDOT], FTA provides both financial and technical assistance to a wide range... Continue Reading →
September 28, 2019 In the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, a new terminal for a longtime airport near the municipality of Florianópolis was officially opened. (Florianópolis is the capital of Santa Catarina.) This airport, which traces its origins to the 1920s, was named after Hercilio Pedro da Luz (1860-1924). Luz’s public service on behalf of... Continue Reading →
September 27, 1979 A lighthouse built in the Ve Skerries region of Scotland first went into service. The Ve Skerries are a group of low skerries (small, rocky islands) located along the southwest perimeter of St Magnus Bay and northwest of Papa Stour. Papa Stour is one of the largest islands of Shetland (also known... Continue Reading →
September 26, 1981 On the southern coast of mainland Singapore, a viaduct was officially opened to the public. This bridge, which stands at the western end of the East Coast Parkway, carries motor vehicles as well as pedestrians over the Marina Reservoir in that region of Singapore. The bridge was named after Benjamin Sheares, who... Continue Reading →
September 23, 1960 A small but pivotal meeting was held for the development of a hiking trail in the Canadian province of Ontario. The idea for such a public footpath originated with Ray Lowes, who had become increasingly concerned about the preservation of the section of the Niagara Escarpment -- a long and steep slope... Continue Reading →
José Antonio Muñiz, an aviator whose U.S. military career included service in Southeast Asia during World War II, was born on October 16, 1919, in the city and municipality of Ponce on Puerto Rico’s southern coast. He was a student at elementary and secondary schools in Ponce. Muñiz then enrolled at the Ponce-based Colegio Ponceño... Continue Reading →
September 21, 2007 The multi-purpose, single-engine helicopter Alouette III was formally retired from service with the Irish Air Corps. Over the course of more than four decades, a total of eight of these helicopters had been used by the Irish Air Corps for various high-priority tasks. The Irish Air Corps, which traces its origins to... Continue Reading →
September 20, 1909 A lighthouse on Pengjia Islet, a volcanic island that is about 38 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of the northern tip of Taiwan, first went into service. The Pengjia Lighthouse was built in response to a large number of shipwrecks in that region of the Pacific Ocean at the time and the consequent... Continue Reading →
September 19, 1783 The Montgolfier brothers launched a duck, a sheep, and a rooster up into the air . . . While this might seem to be either something straight out of a Mother Goose tale or the setup for a bad joke, that is exactly what happened when aviation pioneers Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 