Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
March 25, 1940 An open house for the public was held for a recently completed Greyhound bus terminal at 1100 New York Avenue in northwest Washington, D.C. This open house, which was formally classified as a public preview, took place between 4:00 and 9:00 p.m. on the day before the actual start of bus operations... Continue Reading →
March 20, 1956 Only four days after his 76th birthday, inventor and engineer William Bushnell Stout died of a heart attack at his home in Phoenix, Arizona. Stout, who made significant innovations in the aviation and automotive fields, had been born in 1880 in Quincy, Illinois. After graduating from the Mechanic Arts High School in... Continue Reading →
March 18, 1897 A pilot boat named New York was launched at the shipyards of the transportation manufacturing firm Harlan & Hollingsworth Company in Wilmington, Delaware. This type of vessel operates in the vicinity of a port and is used to transport maritime pilots to ships in the area. While on board a ship, the... Continue Reading →
March 17, 1915 Jacob Ackerman, who earned legendary status for his longtime roles as a captain of vessels and the keeper of a lighthouse on the Hudson River, died in the village of Tarrytown in New York’s Westchester County. He was 88 years old. The New York Times attributed his death to paralysis. Ackerman was... Continue Reading →
March 13, 1886 Albert William Stevens, who achieved renown as a balloonist and aerial photographer during his service in the U.S. Army, was born in the city of Belfast, Maine. He was the third child of Nathan and Alice Whitten. After his mother died only five months after his birth, he was adopted by Andrew... Continue Reading →
March 6, 1995 Operations began for a newly built rail station in the city of San Clemente on the coast of Orange County, California. This station is served by both the Orange County Line and Inland Empire-Orange County Line of southern California’s commuter trains network Metrolink. San Clemente station is specifically located in the North... Continue Reading →
March 3, 2014 William “Bill” Reid Pogue, whose extensive flight achievements included service as both a U.S. Air Force (USAF) officer and NASA astronaut, died at his home in Cocoa Beach, Florida. He was 84. Pogue started out life on January 30, 1984, Okemah, Oklahoma. He was of Choctaw ancestry, even though he never became... Continue Reading →
February 25, 1908 The first tube of the McAdoo rapid transit tunnel system allowing electric trolleys to travel between Hoboken, New Jersey, and Manhattan was formally opened amid great fanfare. This structure made history as the first transportation tunnel beneath a major river. “It is the first tunnel for passenger traffic under the Hudson River and... Continue Reading →
February 19, 1966 It was the end of an era in train history when the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad’s steam locomotive No. 4960 departed from Union Station in St. Louis, Missouri, for a trip to the city of Hannibal in the Show-Me State. This steam locomotive was a coal burner dating back to 1923. (The... Continue Reading →
February 13, 1958 The Ford Motor Company introduced the first four-passenger model of the Ford Thunderbird (popularly known as the T-Bird) nearly four years after the original version of this automobile -- which was built for two -- had made its official debut. The four-passenger version marked the transformation of the T-Bird from a sports car... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 