Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
A new lighthouse went into service at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost tip of Africa and the start of the dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The Cape Agulhas Lighthouse was the third lighthouse to be built in present-day South Africa. At the time of the lighthouse’s debut, Cape Agulhas was a part of... Continue Reading →
A large-scale celebration was held for the opening of the new Sellwood Bridge spanning the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon. The deck arch bridge, connecting Portland's Sellwood and Westmoreland neighborhoods on the east side of the river with Oregon Route 43/Macadam Avenue on the west side, replaced a bridge with the same name that had been... Continue Reading →
Marshall W. "Major" Taylor (1878-1932), the first African-American to become a world-champion cyclist, departed the Australian city of Melbourne via train during the course of his second racing tour in the Land Down Under. (His first tour in Australia took place the previous year.) The Indiana-born Taylor had launched his professional cycling career at New York... Continue Reading →
Sir William Arrol, one of the most renowned civil engineers of the Victoria Era, died at his home in the Scottish town of Ayr at the age of 74. “A GREAT BRIDGE BUILDER,” proclaimed the headline in the next day’s edition of the London Standard for the article announcing his death. The article stated, “Sheer... Continue Reading →
A new lighthouse began operations in the part of central California that is about halfway between the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. Piedras Blancas Light Station, specifically located a little over five miles (8.1 kilometers) west by northwest of the town of San Simeon, has since served as a key navigational aid for... Continue Reading →
Construction began on a tunnel for the Northern Pacific Railway in the Cascade Mountains of the Territory of Washington. (A little less than four years later, Washington became the 42nd state.) The site selected for the tunnel was just south of Stampede Pass. Work on the Stampede Tunnel commenced with the operation of hand drills... Continue Reading →
A shipyard owned and operated by African-Americans opened for business in Baltimore. A major force behind this new facility was Isaac Myers (1835-1891), who had been born in Baltimore. While Maryland was a slave state, Myers’ parents were free-born African-Americans. When he was 16, Myers began an apprenticeship as a caulker for ships coming into... Continue Reading →
Dr. Bernard A. Harris Jr., a NASA astronaut, became the first African-American to walk in space. He accomplished this as a member of the six-person crew on STS-63, the first joint American-Russian space program mission and the 20th flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery. The mission lasted just over eight days, and on the sixth... Continue Reading →
A new station on the Green Line of the Chicago Transit Authority’s “L” (elevated) rapid transit system was opened for service at 5:00 a.m. The Cermak-McCormick Place station is located at Cermak Road and State Street in Chicago’s Near South Side neighborhood. The facility is within walking distance of McCormick Place, which is the largest... Continue Reading →
A World War II ship that played an important role in African-American history was decommissioned by the U.S. Navy. The submarine chaser USS PC-1264, which had been launched during the fall of 1943, was one of only two Navy ships during the war to have a predominantly African-American crew. (The other vessel with this distinction... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 