Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
February 25, 1981 An airport in western Argentina’s San Juan Province was officially opened. This airport was named after Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811-1888), a statesman and prolific writer who served as president of Argentina from 1868 to 1874. (The airport is not the only part of Argentina's wide-ranging transportation network that bears his name; one of... Continue Reading →
February 24, 1862 A lighthouse built on the coast of southeastern Scotland first went into service. This navigational aid is located on the cliffs at a rocky promontory that has long been known as St. Abbs Head. St. Abbs Head Lighthouse was designed and constructed by the brothers David Stevenson (1815-1886) and Thomas Stevenson (1818-1887).... Continue Reading →
February 21, 1894 A pilot boat constructed by shipbuilder Moses Adams (1837-1894) in Essex, Massachusetts, was launched. Moses, who died less than five months after this launch, built the vessel for a company of Sandy Hook pilots. These pilots are transported via such boats to ships bound for or already within the region encompassing of... Continue Reading →
February 20, 1943 With World War II very much underway across the globe, the ship SS Cape Johnson was launched at 11:00 a.m. at Consolidated Steel Corporation’s shipyard in the Los Angeles neighborhood. This ship, which was named after a cape off the coast of Washington state, was the 26th combination cargo-passenger vessel to be... Continue Reading →
February 18, 2023 Operations began for a station in the Uttara neighborhood of Dhaka, the capital and largest city of Bangladesh. This elevated station -- formally designated as Uttara Center -- is part of Line 6 of the city’s mass rapid transit system known as the Dhaka Metro. The first section of that line was... Continue Reading →
February 17, 2014 In the Australian state of South Australia (SA), a railway station in Wayville was formally opened to the public. (Wayville is a suburb of the City of Unley, a government area within the metropolitan region of SA’s capital of Adelaide.) This station was built as a transit link for the Adelaide Showground,... Continue Reading →
February 14, 2012 A newly completed terminal for Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar (DABH) Airport in India’s state of Madhya Pradesh was formally opened. The public officials taking part in this inaugural ceremony included Shivraj Singh Chouhan (born in 1959), chief minister of Madhya Pradesh; and Ajit Singh (1939-2021), India’s minister of civil aviation. This terminal... Continue Reading →
February 13, 1851 A railway station in southeastern England’s village of Hamstreet first went into service. This station was built as part of the South Eastern Railway (SER), which operated in this area of the country from 1836 to 1922. At the time of its opening, the station was spelled out as “Ham Street” rather... Continue Reading →
February 11, 1933 In Allegheny County, a suspension bridge built in Pittsburgh’s South Side was opened to traffic without any formality or notable amount of fanfare. This bridge’s low-key debut was reported in the next day’s edition of the Pittsburgh Press. “Undedicated and without ceremony, the county’s new bridge across Monongahela River at Tenth Street... Continue Reading →
February 10, 2013 Regular service began at 11:00 a.m. for the first fully automated line of the rapid transit system Metropolitana di Milano (Milan Metro) in Italy’s second most populous city. Line 5 -- also known as M5 or the Lilac Line -- had been formally inaugurated five days earlier. Those on hand for that... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 