Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
June 9, 1853 A railway station in the city of Aalst in northwestern Belgium was opened. This facility was built as one of the stations for the Belgian State Railways, which had been established in 1834 as the country’s first state-owned railway system. Aalst railway station was designed by architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar (1811-1880). He also... Continue Reading →
June 2, 1852 Eduard Spelterini, who would achieve widespread fame for his balloon ascents and the photographs that he took during those flights, was born in the village of Bazenheid in Switzerland. He developed a strong interest in travel via balloons after moving to Paris in the mid-1870s. In 1877, Spelterini was licensed as a... Continue Reading →
May 27, 1931 Auguste Piccard, a world-renowned physicist and inventor, and his fellow physicist Paul Kipfer achieved a record-setting balloon flight in which they became the first human beings to enter into the stratosphere. (The stratosphere is the second layer of Earth’s atmosphere; it is located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere.) Auguste Piccard... Continue Reading →
May 26, 1932 In Denmark, a royal yacht was officially commissioned as an auxiliary ship of the Royal Danish Navy. His Danish Majesty’s Yacht (HDMY) Dannebrog (A540), which was named after the national flag of Denmark, had been built at the Naval Shipyard in Copenhagen. She was launched by Queen Alexandrine (1879-1952), who reigned as... Continue Reading →
May 24, 2007 The Cotswold Way, a footpath in southwestern England, was officially designated a National Trail. National Trails encompass long-distance footpaths and bridleways in both England and Wales and are administered by Natural England, a non-departmental public agency of the United Kingdom; and Natural Resources Wales, a Welsh Government-sponsored body that was formed in... Continue Reading →
May 20, 2014 A dedication ceremony was held for a single-span bridge in Dublin, Ireland. This structure -- measuring 157 feet (48 meters) in length and 85 feet (26 meters) in width -- crosses the River Liffey and serves as a link between Marlborough and Hawkins Streets in Ireland’s capital city. The bridge is used... Continue Reading →
May 12, 1968 After three decades of service, the trolleybus system in Northern Ireland’s capital city of Belfast officially ceased operations. (Belfast also has the distinction of being the largest city in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.) The original trolleybuses for this system made their first runs on March 28, 1938,... Continue Reading →
May 11, 2018 The research vessel Eugen Seibold was launched at the German city of Kiel, which is located on the southwestern shore of the Baltic Sea. Construction on this sailing yacht had begun the previous year. Measuring 72.2 feet (22 meters) in length, the Eugen Seibold is used for the study and contamination-free sampling... Continue Reading →
May 5, 1835 The first steam passenger railway in continental Europe was opened in Belgium. This section of railway, which connected the cities of Brussels and Mechelen, was the initial segment of the Belgian Railway Line 25. English civil engineer George Stephenson was among the first to travel on the new line. His company, as a... Continue Reading →
May 3, 1865 The French government formally authorized the start of construction on the Phare des Pierres Noires (Black Rocks Lighthouse) on the northwest coast of France. This conical structure is specifically located at Le Conquet, which is a commune in the department of Finistère (an administrative division of France’s Brittany region). Le Conquet is... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 