Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
August 16, 1928 San Diego Municipal Airport-Lindbergh Field was dedicated. The construction of this California-based airport, made possible by a bond issue passed by the city government of San Diego, had been inspired in large part by Charles Lindbergh’s historic solo transatlantic flight the previous year. The site of the new facility was near the airstrip... Continue Reading →
August 15, 1893 Construction was completed on a passenger train station at Ninth and Spruce Streets in Terre Haute, Indiana. Terre Haute Union Station was designed by Cincinnati-based architect Samuel Hannaford. In the course of its 67 years of existence, this three-and-a-half-story building served the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad; the Terre Haute & Indianapolis... Continue Reading →
August 12, 1908 In Michigan, a new era in motorboats began when marine designer John L. Hacker purchased the vessel manufacturer Detroit Launch & Power Company and renamed it the Hacker Boat Company. The 31-year-old Hacker, bringing into play his expert craftsmanship and a wealth of ideas for design improvements, would revolutionize the use of... Continue Reading →
August 11, 1955 Franklin Augustus “Frank” Seiberling, an entrepreneur and inventor who left a lasting imprint on the production of tires for motor vehicles, died in his longtime hometown of Akron, Ohio. “Frank Augustus Seiberling was a man of large gestures, lordly gambles, strong friendships, occasional humor, and invariable fighting courage,” noted the next day’s... Continue Reading →
August 10, 1840 American aeronaut Louis Anselm Lauriat traveled in his hydrogen balloon Star of the East in the skies above the present-day Canadian province of New Brunswick. This excursion was the first piloted flight in Canada. At that time, New Brunswick was a British colony; in 1867, it became one of the four original... Continue Reading →
August 8, 1890 Carl Stearns Clancy, who became the first person to travel around the world on a motorcycle, was born in the town of Epping, New Hampshire. His mother was from Massachusetts and his father had emigrated from Ireland. Carl Stearns Clancy’s transportation-related to fame began in earnest in October 1912 when he and... Continue Reading →
August 5, 1939 In the Canadian province of British Columbia, a regional airport built six miles (nine kilometers) northwest of the city of Kamloops was officially opened. Kamloops Airport was widely seen at the time as a facility that would become a pivotal link in the province’s airways network. “Kamloops Becomes Aerial Crossroads,” stated a... Continue Reading →
August 3, 1900 The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company was incorporated in Akron, Ohio. Harvey S, Firestone (1868-1938), with only a dozen employees to help him, formally launched a state-of-the-art business for making more durable and efficient tires for horse-drawn wagons and buggies. Within just a few years, the company would shift its focus to... Continue Reading →
July 28, 1979 A major aviation milestone took place with the celebration of an extended runway for a longtime public-use, general aviation airport in northwestern Minnesota’s community of Pinecreek. This 1,150-foot (350.5-foot) extension, by stretching the runway across the United States’ border with Canada and into the community of Piney in the Canadian province of... Continue Reading →
July 26, 1884 A pivotal milestone occurred in the construction of a lighthouse in Maryland’s Eastern Shore region. This milestone specifically involved setting up the cottage-like superstructure for Great Shoals Light at the mouth of the Wicomico River, a 24.4-mile (39.3-kilometer)-long tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. The components for that superstructure had been manufactured at... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 