Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
July 17, 2024 In southern Italy, operations officially began for a new segment of the rapid transit system serving the city of Naples. The start of regular service for this extension of Line 6 of the Naples Metro took place the day after Gaetano Manfredi, who has been mayor of the city since 2021, joined... Continue Reading →
July 16, 1938 Operations began for an airport in the town and borough of Luton in England. (Luton, which originated as a Saxon settlement in the sixth century, is approximately 32 miles [50 kilometers] northwest of London.) Luton Airport was officially opened on that Saturday by Sir Kingsley Wood (1881-1943), who had become the British... Continue Reading →
July 10, 1947 The maiden flight of the prototype of the Airspeed Ambassador, a twin piston-engined airliner, took place in the skies above England’s southern coast. This plane, which was designed and manufactured by the British aeronautical engineering company Airspeed Ltd., became one of the first airliners to be produced and introduced in England during... Continue Reading →
July 9, 1953 A pilot cutter was launched in the town and civil parish of Dartmouth in southwestern England. The vessel was built by the Dartmouth-area shipbuilder Philip and Son for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHB) -- now called the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company -- for use on the section of the... Continue Reading →
July 8, 2013 The Sveti Ilija Tunnel in central-southern Croatia was officially opened. This tunnel carries the D76 state road through a 5,387-foot (1,642-meter)-tall mountain ridge known as Sveti Ilija (Saint Elijah). This ridge, which is part of the Biokovo mountain range, was named after a prophet in the Old Testament. The Sveti Ilija Tunnel... Continue Reading →
July 3, 1905 In the northern part of London, an international electric tramway and railway exhibition was opened in the Royal Agricultural Hall in the inner-city area of Islington. This event, which would continue until July 14, was the third of its kind to be held at that location. The first of these exhibitions took... Continue Reading →
July 2, 1971 In west-central Scotland, the Erskine Bridge was formally opened. This cable-stayed box girder bridge, which crosses the River Clyde, serves as a link between the local government council areas of West Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire. (The bridge is located in the vicinity of the Renfrewshire town of Erskine.) The Erskine Bridge was designed... Continue Reading →
July 1, 1872 Transportation pioneer Louis Blériot was born in the city of Cambrai in northern France. He studied engineering at École Centrale (now part of CentraleSupélec) in Paris. Automobiles became the first means of transportation in which Blériot became actively involved. He developed the world’s first practical headlamps for these vehicles by using a... Continue Reading →
June 27, 1998 In the northernmost region of western Norway, the Stordal Tunnel in Møre og Romsdal county first went into service. This road tunnel was officially opened by Kjell Magne Bondevik (born in 1947), who served as prime minister of Norway between 1997 and 2000 and again from 2001 to 2005. Measuring 11,580 feet... Continue Reading →
June 18, 1972 Arroios station on what is now the Green Line of the Lisbon Metro, the rapid transit system operating in the metropolitan area centered on Portugal’s capital city, first went into service. Arroios, the area where this station is located, is a frequesia (civil parish) and district of Lisbon. The station, which was... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 