Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
November 7, 2009 A new state-of-the-art terminal for Larnaca (also spelled as Larnaka) International Airport in the Republic of Cyprus made its formal debut. This airport, which opened in 1974, is located 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) southwest of the city of Larnaca on the island country’s southeastern coast. The inaugural ceremony for the new terminal... Continue Reading →
October 26, 1972 Uffa Fox, a renowned boat designer and sailing expert, died in London at the age of 74. He had been born on January 15, 1898, on England’s Isle of Wight. Fox is widely credited with popularizing modern-day dinghy sailing and making several major contributions to that small-boat activity. One of these contributions was Fox’s... Continue Reading →
October 25, 1985 A newly built international airport in the Republic of Ireland began operations with three charter flights of Aer Lingus (the country’s flag carrier) traveling to Rome. Ireland West Airport, which is officially known as Ireland West Airport Knock, is located in County Mayo in the western part of Ireland. This airport is... Continue Reading →
October 19, 1865 The foundation stone was laid for a bridge to be built across the river Vitava in Prague, capital city of the present-day Czech Republic. (When construction began on that bridge, Prague was the capital of Lands of the Bohemian Crown; two years later, this territory became part of the region of the... 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 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 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 →
September 16, 1956 A newly built lighthouse first went into service in the Tuscany region of central Italy. This lighthouse is located at the south entrance of the port of the city of Livorno, which is on the coast of the Ligurian Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea). The Port of Livorno is the... Continue Reading →
September 1, 1919 In the southernmost part of Spain located within the Iberian Peninsula, the first scheduled commercial flights began for an airport in the country’s Costa del Sol region. This airport, which is five miles (eight kilometers) southwest of the municipality of Málaga, had been established about six months earlier. The first regular flights... Continue Reading →
August 31, 1998 Rastila metro station on line M1 of the Helsinki Metro, the world’s northernmost metro system, began operations. This ground-level station serves the residential areas of Rastila and Meri-Rastila in the district of Vuosaari in the eastern part of Finland’s capital city. This station was designed by architects Irmeli Grundström and Juhani Vainio.... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 