Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 15, 2004 Amadora Este station on the Blue Line of the Lisbon Metro, the rapid transit station operating in the metropolitan area centered on Portugal’s capital city, first went into service. This underground station is located beneath a major bus terminal in the municipality and city of Amadora, which is 6.2 miles (10 kilometers)... Continue Reading →
May 9, 1896 The Nord Express (Northern Express) train service was introduced by the Belgian company Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL). This train transported passengers from Paris, France, to Saint Petersburg, Russia, traveling between those two points via the cities of Brussels, Cologne, Hanover, Berlin, Konigsberg (present-day Kalingrad), and Dvinsk (now known as Daugavpils). Following World War... Continue Reading →
May 2, 1952 The world’s first regular jetliner service made officially made its debut when a De Havilland DH 106 Comet operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation departed London, England, for Johannesburg, South Africa. “This trip officially established a radically new mode of travel that in this decade will become commonplace,” predicted Aubrey O. Cookman, Jr.,... Continue Reading →
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 →
