Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
June 27, 2006 In Mexico, an inaugural ceremony was held for Ángel Albino Corzo International Airport (also known as Tuxtla Gutiérrez International Airport) in the city and municipality of Chiapa de Corzo in the west-central region of the state of Chiapas. This international airport is 9.3 miles (15 kilometers) east of the city of Tuxtla... Continue Reading →
June 23, 1916 Modine Manufacturing Company, which would become an international force in heating-and-cooling technology for motor vehicles, was incorporated. This company started out as a business run by engineer Arthur B. Modine in a one-room office adjacent to a small workshop in Racine, Wisconsin. Modine Manufacturing Company made its debut at a time when... Continue Reading →
June 22, 1925 A ferry named the MV Crosline was launched in the western region of Seattle. This wooden diesel-powered ship had been designed by naval architect L.H. Coolidge. Crosline was built by the Marine Construction Company for entrepreneur Harry W. Crosby to use in his recently established ferry service in that part of the... Continue Reading →
June 16, 1941 In the Washington, D.C., area, Washington National Airport (now formally known as Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) first went into service. “Washington Airport Opened to Air Lines Without Ceremonies,” stated a headline in that day’s edition of the Baltimore Sun. This federally owned and operated airport was preceded by two privately owned... Continue Reading →
June 15, 1962 A newly built lighthouse on Sullivan’s Island, located at the northern entrance to Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, was first lit. “It’s unique among the hundreds of lighthouses in the nation in that its tower is triangular; the better to withstand hurricane winds that periodically pound the coast,” asserted an Associated Press... Continue Reading →
June 14, 1917 A little over two months after the United States entered World War I on the side of the Allied Powers, the steam yacht Legonia II was commissioned in Baltimore for service in the U.S. Navy. This vessel had been purchased only eight days earlier from William B. Hurst, a prominent Baltimore resident.... Continue Reading →
June 13, 1931 The St. Johns Bridge was dedicated in Portland, Oregon. This steel suspension bridge, which carries the U.S. Route 30 Bypass over the Willamette River, links Portland’s St. Johns neighborhood with the industrial area near the community of Linnton. Renowned engineer David B. Steinman (1886-1960), whose many structural accomplishments include Michigan’s Mackinac Bridge,... Continue Reading →
June 8, 1809 The steamboat Phoenix departed from New York City for Philadelphia. This voyage would earn the Phoenix a place in transportation history as the first steamboat to sail the open ocean. The Phoenix was built about two years earlier in Hoboken, New Jersey, by engineer and lawyer John Stevens (1749-1838) and his son... Continue Reading →
June 7, 1986 In northern Virginia, the opening of a 9.1-mile (14.7-kilometer) extension of the Washington Metro rapid transit system’s Orange Line was celebrated with great fanfare. The public debut of this extension marked the official completion of the Orange Line a little over seven-and-a-half years after the inauguration of its first segment. This line’s... Continue Reading →
June 6, 1933 The first open air drive-in movie theater opened on Crescent Boulevard in Camden, New Jersey. Richard M. Hollingshead (1899-1975), finding a new way to use the “horseless carriage,” worked out the details for that theater by experimenting with the setup in his own driveway. One major challenge involved the automobiles that would... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 