Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Talk about an unexpected detour . . . Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, a scientist and inventor who also possessed a strong passion for travel via air balloons, found himself inadvertently flying smack into potential wartime intrigue and danger. Lowe, who was born in New Hampshire, in 1832, possessed a tremendous curiosity about the world around him... Continue Reading →
The Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, made history during the first day of battle in the American War of Independence. This structure, immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as “the rude bridge that arched the flood,” marked the location where colonial minutemen and others serving alongside them fought British light infantry companies that had come... Continue Reading →
Influential novelist and short story writer Ernest Hemingway acquired a 38-foot (12-meter) boat that would become an important part of his life and legacy. The boat had been constructed by Wheeler Shipbuilding of Brooklyn, New York, at the company’s Coney Island yard. Hemingway, who paid $7,495 for the customized boat, assumed ownership of the vessel in... Continue Reading →
USS Mount Vernon (LSD-39), a dock landing ship built by General Dynamics Corporation (GD) for the U.S. Navy’s use in providing logistical support for ground forces, was officially launched. The ceremony took place at GD’s Quincy Shipbuilding Division in eastern Massachusetts. Eileen Shillito christened the new ship: her husband Barry J. Shillito was serving at... Continue Reading →
The salvage tugboat Abeille Bourbon was launched at the city of Brest on the western edge of France. Abeille Bourbon is owned by Les Abeilles International, a unit of the shipping company Groupe Bourbon, and was chartered to the French Navy for use as a deep-sea emergency tow vessel. The yacht-like Abeille Bourbon was designed... Continue Reading →
On the southwestern coast of present-day South Africa, a new lighthouse began operations near the city of Cape Town. (At the time of the lighthouse’s debut, this region was a part of the British colony known as the Cape Colony.) While built at Mouille Point, the lighthouse was formally named after the local community of... Continue Reading →
Frank N. Piasecki, an engineer, made the second successful U.S. helicopter flight. In 1940, he helped form the P-V Engineering Forum to build and improve upon Igor Sikorsky’s pioneering helicopter flight over American soil the previous year. Piasecki’s company, however, was strapped for cash. He and his engineering team ended up becoming expert scroungers, searching... Continue Reading →
British cyclist Gordon W. “Tiny” Thomas died in the city Peterborough in eastern England at the age of 91. He had been born in the town of Shipley in northern England’s county of West Yorkshire in 1921. Thomas acquired the nickname “Tiny” when, as a 12-year-old joining a local cycling group known as the Yorkshire... Continue Reading →
At a press conference at the Dolley Madison House in Washington, D.C., the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officially introduced the first group of American astronauts. These astronauts would take part in the human spaceflight program called Project Mercury. “Seven young military pilots were presented today as the nation’s future pioneers in space,” reported... Continue Reading →
Varney Air Lines officially began service with a history-making U.S. airmail flight that originated in the city of Pasco, Washington. “America’s most modern and rapid transportation of mail was brought to the northwest today,” reported that day’s edition of the Salt Lake Tribune. Walter T. Varney, a pilot in the aviation section of the U.S.... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 