Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
April 27, 1952 The airborne ambulance service known today as Rega -- and also called Swiss Air-Rescue -- was established during the ninth annual meeting of the Swiss Rescue Association (SRA). The SRA delegates in attendance at that meeting, which took place in the municipality of Twann in west-central Switzerland, formally approved creating the Swiss... Continue Reading →
April 20, 1882 In what was then the Kingdom of Italy, the Italian Royal Navy’s screw corvette Vettor Pisani departed from the city of Naples for an ambitious voyage across the globe. (A screw corvette is a small warship powered by both a steam engine and screw propeller.) The key objectives for this global circumnavigation... Continue Reading →
April 18, 1965 A funicular railway serving Greece’s capital city of Athens was inaugurated. Regular operations for this means of public transit began the following day. This railway, which is located in the central section of Athens, was built by the Greek National Tourism Organization to carry people up and down a steep limestone hill... Continue Reading →
April 14, 2011 In the western region of the Federal Republic of Germany, a newly completed railway station was inaugurated in the city of Koblenz in the state of Rhineland Palatinate. Construction on Koblenz Stadtmitte station had begun in January 2008, and this facility ultimately opened the day before numerous people would be traveling via... Continue Reading →
April 11, 1954 In southwestern France, a newly constructed airport was opened in the region known as the French Basque Country. This airport is specifically located just 3.1 miles (five kilometers) southeast of the city of Biarritz, a popular seaside tourist destination. Guy Petit (1905-1988), who served as mayor of Biarritz from 1945 to 1977,... Continue Reading →
March 27, 2004 Odivelas station on the Yellow Line of the Lisbon Metro, the rapid transit system operating in the metropolitan area centered on Portugal’s capital city, first went into service. This station, which is in the city and municipality of Odivelas (northwest of Lisbon), was one of five Yellow Line stations opened on the... Continue Reading →
March 16, 1938 A dedication ceremony was held for an airport built in the Sydenham ward of Northern Ireland’s capital city of Belfast. (This city also has the distinction of being the largest one in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.) The inauguration of the facility originally known as Sydenham Airport was... Continue Reading →
March 7, 1969 The Victoria line of the London Underground, the wide-ranging rapid transit system of England’s capital city and the metropolitan area surrounding it, was officially opened. The Victoria line was the first entirely new line of the London Underground to be built in a half-century. The first portion of the Victoria line to... Continue Reading →
February 28, 2015 A newly built railway station was opened in the city of Delft in the Netherlands’ province of South Holland. This city has played a huge role in Dutch history over the centuries and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Netherlands. Delft -- located between Rotterdam to the southeast... Continue Reading →
February 10, 1955 The day after the Rome Metro was formally opened in Italy’s capital city, Colosseo (Colosseum) station became one of the five stations on Line B of that rapid transit system to begin operations. Colosseo station is located in the Monti rione (administrative division) in the central part of Rome. As its name... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 