Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
July 18, 1945 About a month-and-a-half before World War II ended altogether with the surrender of Japan to the Allies, the U.S. Navy patrol yacht USS Tourmaline (PY-20) was decommissioned. This vessel had been used for various patrol assignments throughout the war. Tourmaline had actually started out as a private yacht named Sylvia. She was... Continue Reading →
July 15, 1880 The American Shoal Light, which is located on a submerged reef in the Florida Keys, first went into service. The inaugural lighting of this navigational aid was done that night by William Bates, the newly constructed lighthouse's first keeper. He served in that role until 1889. The American Shoal Light can be found about 15 miles... Continue Reading →
July 14, 1990 In California, the Blue Line of Los Angeles County’s transit system began making regular runs. This line (renamed the A Line in 2019) was the first of the six lines that now comprise the Los Angeles Metro Rail. “After nearly three decades, commuter rail returns to Los Angeles today with the opening... Continue Reading →
July 12, 1922 The U.S. Post Office Department (USPOD), which was replaced by the present-day U.S. Postal Service in 1971, issued the first American stamp depicting a motorcycle. This blue 10-cent U.S. special delivery stamp focuses on a postal messenger making the rounds with a motorcycle. This motorcycle was likely based on a Harley-Davidson model.... Continue Reading →
July 7, 1860 The Swallowtail Lighthouse first went into service on Grand Manan Island, a section of the Bay of Fundy that is part of the present-day Canadian province of New Brunswick. At the time of that lighthouse’s debut, New Brunswick was a British colony; in 1867, it became one of the four original provinces... Continue Reading →
June 30, 1887 A yacht named Volunteer, which had been built by the Pusey and Jones Company for that year’s edition of the international sailing competition known as the America’s Cup, was officially launched. Volunteer was specifically a sloop (a sailboat with a single mast) equipped with a centerboard, which is a retractable keel that... Continue Reading →
June 27, 1898 Joshua Slocum completed the first solo circumnavigation of the world at 1:00 a.m. when he sailed into the harbor at Newport, Rhode Island, on board his oyster sloop (a type of one-masted sailboat) named the Spray. The Canadian-born Slocum had first set sail in that vessel from Boston on April 25, 1895,... Continue Reading →
June 23, 1964 The Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, which spans the Potomac River and serves as a highway link between Washington, D.C., and Virginia, was officially dedicated. Plans for a new bridge across this section of the Potomac River first took significant shape during the early 1950s. Finally, in 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into... Continue Reading →
June 22, 1909 Talk about being multimodal! The firm of Wyckoff, Church & Partridge (WCP), automobile dealers based in New York City, formally became the first corporate entity in the United States to sell planes. As far as automobiles were concerned, WCP had already established itself by that time as an early pioneer in showrooms... Continue Reading →
June 17, 1928 Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart was among those departing on a plane from Trepassey Harbor at Newfoundland for what would be a pioneering flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Wilmer Stultz was the pilot of that plane, a Fokker F.VIIb/3m aircraft known as the Friendship, and Lou Gordon was on board as the co-pilot... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 