Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
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 →
August 26, 1844 A newly completed bridge spanning the River Irwell in northwestern England was opened to the public. This bridge serves as a link between the cities of Salford and Manchester. It was named after Prince Albert, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom and the husband of Queen Victoria. Albert Bridge took the place... Continue Reading →
August 22, 2015 A bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists was opened in the Christianshavn neighborhood of Copenhagen. This structure, which was formally named the Circle Bridge, spans the southern mouth of the Christianshavn Canal in Denmark’s capital city. The 130-foot (40-meter)-long Circle Bridge encompasses a total of five round platforms. Each of these platforms has... Continue Reading →
August 4, 1999 In the Netherlands, a vessel built to serve as a training ship for the Brazilian Navy was christened and launched. Cisne Branco, which means “White Swan” in Brazil’s official language of Portuguese, is a full-rigged tall ship (a large sailing vessel) that was constructed by the Dutch company Damen Shipyards Group. This... Continue Reading →
August 2, 1870 The world’s first underground tube subway opened in London, England. The Tower Subway was created to provide railway service beneath the Thames River. The leading engineers involved in the design and construction of this pioneering subway were Peter W. Barlow (1809-1885) and his assistant John Henry Greathead (1844-1896). As the key part... Continue Reading →
