Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
June 17, 1892 Two years after construction on it began, the Brienz Rothorn Railway in central Switzerland first went into service. This line connects the municipality of Brienz with the summit of the mountain known as the Brienzer Rothorn (part of the western region of the Alps). The Brienz Rothorn Railway (“Brienz Rothorn Bahn” [BRB]... Continue Reading →
June 12, 2005 Passenger rail service returned after a hiatus of 41 years to the Vale of Glamorgan, a county borough in southeastern Wales. This service began on a regular basis two days after the Vale of Glamorgan Line was formally dedicated. The festivities that day included a train breaking through an inaugural banner at... Continue Reading →
June 10, 1822 A historic “first” in maritime transportation took place when the iron steamship Aaron Manby crossed the English Channel from England to France. While there had been crossings of wooden steamships between those countries by this time, the voyage of the Aaron Manby marked the first such voyage of a steamship built of... Continue Reading →
June 4, 1910 Christopher Cockerell, who would achieve fame as the inventor of the hovercraft, was born in the city of Cambridge, England. He studied mechanical engineering at Peterhouse, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Cockerell later pursued studies in both radio and electronics at the University of Cambridge. In 1935, Cockerell began... Continue Reading →
June 3, 2011 A major bus station in Osijek, one of the largest cities in the Republic of Croatia, made its public debut. Construction on Osijek bus station began in 2007. This station was officially opened by Vladimir Šeks (born in 1943), who was serving at the time as deputy speaker of the Croatian Parliament... Continue Reading →
June 1, 1982 A little over two months before the Helsinki Metro was officially inaugurated, Hakaniemi station became one of a few stations of that rapid transit system to be opened to the public for test drives of trains during the morning and afternoon rush hours. Hakaniemi station is named for an area within the... Continue Reading →
May 19, 1988 A box girder bridge off the western coast of France was officially opened. This 9,601-foot (2,926.5-meter) structure serves as a pivotal link between Ȋle de Ré, a French island in the Atlantic Ocean; and La Rocehelle, a city on France’s mainland. The Ȋle de Ré Bridge was designed by structural engineer Michel... Continue Reading →
May 18, 2007 The Puch Bridge in northeastern Slovenia was officially opened for traffic. This structure crosses the Drava River in the town of Ptuj. The bridge was named after Johann Puch (1862-1914), a Slovene inventor and mechanic who established himself as a prolific and even pacesetting manufacturer of bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles, buses, and trucks.... Continue Reading →
May 12, 1937 Beryl Burton, who became a prominent racing cyclist, was born Beryl Charnock in the Halton district of the English city of Leeds. She would spend most of her life in Morley, a market town and civil parish within Leeds. It was her husband Charles Burton who introduced her to the world of... Continue Reading →
May 5, 1991 In northern Italy’s administrative region of Emilia-Romagna, an airport located a mile-and-a-half (2.4 kilometers) from the city of Parma was officially opened. This civil airport was built on the site of an airfield that had existed there as far back as 1923. Regularly scheduled flights at the airport began on the same... Continue Reading →
