Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
January 3, 1966 A longtime railway station in the village and civil parish of Adlestrop in southwestern England was closed to passenger traffic. This marked the complete shutdown of that station, which had been closed to goods traffic during the summer of 1963. Adlestrop railway station was opened in 1853 by the Oxford, Worcester and... Continue Reading →
December 27, 1773 George Cayley, an engineer and one of the key figures in aviation history, was born in the seaside town of Scarborough in England. He painstakingly observed and took notes on birds and how they were able to fly, and created the first successful glider able to carry humans. Cayley, first and foremost, helped... Continue Reading →
December 23, 1903 Armand Blanchonnet, who would establish himself as a formidable amateur cyclist, was born in the commune of Gipcy in central France. The apex of his cycling career took place during the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. During those games, Blanchonnet earned the gold medal in the individual component of a men’s road... Continue Reading →
December 14, 2004 The Millau Viaduct in southern France was officially opened three years after construction on it had begun. This cable-stayed bridge is located near the commune of Millau. The 8,070-foot (2,460-meter)-long Millau Viaduct carries four lanes of the A75 autoroute (motorway) across the gorge valley of a section of the river Tarn. One... Continue Reading →
December 6, 1954 A different type of motor coach bus first rolled off the Mercedes-Benz assembly line in city of Mannheim in what was then West Germany. The 30-foot (9.1-meter)-long 0321H, which was equipped with nine rows of seats and could accommodate up to 37 passengers, made its debut nearly six decades after automotive pioneer... Continue Reading →
December 2, 1961 An airport in northeastern Italy’s region of Friuli Venezia Giulia officially began commercial operations. This airport is specifically located about 19 miles (30 kilometers) northwest of Trieste, the capital city of Friuli Venezia Giulia. As far back as 1935, that aviation facility had been used as a base for the country’s air... Continue Reading →
November 22, 1990 The Křižíkova station of the rapid transit system known as the Prague Metro was officially opened. As the time, Prague was the capital of Czechoslovakia. The longtime communist rule in Czechoslovakia had ended about a year earlier, and in 1993, that country would be split into the independent states of Slovakia and... Continue Reading →
November 8, 1881 Aviation pioneer and spaceflight theorist Robert Esnault-Pelterie was born in Paris, France. With a strong background in engineering, he made major contributions to the origins of heavier-than-air flight in Europe during the first decade of the 20th century. In 1903, Esnault-Pelterie invented the aileron -- a movable airfoil that could be installed at the... Continue Reading →
November 1, 1876 In the Netherlands, the North Sea Canal was officially opened by the nation’s monarch King William III. The Dutch waterway, which extends from the Netherlands’ capital of Amsterdam to the North Sea at the city of IJmuiden, was built to allow seafaring vessels to more easily reach the Port of Amsterdam. The... Continue Reading →
October 26, 1952 A station of the Stockholm metro was formally opened in the community of Blackeberg in the western section of Sweden’s capital and largest city. Blackeberg metro station was one of 17 stations to be inaugurated on the same date on Line 19 of the Green Line of Stockholm’s rapid system. Blackeberg metro... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 