Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
June 12, 1979 The original version of the Gossamer Albatross became the first human-powered aircraft to cross the English Channel. This aircraft had been designed and built by a team led by aeronautical engineer Paul B. MacCready at the American technology company AeroVironment. Amateur cyclist Bryan Allen was the one who piloted the Albatross across the... Continue Reading →
June 9, 2003 In the eastern region of the Republic of Ireland, a bridge in the Boyne Valley was formally opened to motor vehicle traffic. This bridge, spanning the River Boyne, is located about two miles (3.2 kilometers) west of Drogheda (a town straddling the boundary between Counties Meath and Louth of the province of... Continue Reading →
June 8, 1809 The steamboat Phoenix departed from New York City for Philadelphia. This voyage would earn the Phoenix a place in transportation history as the first steamboat to sail the open ocean. The Phoenix was built about two years earlier in Hoboken, New Jersey, by engineer and lawyer John Stevens (1749-1838) and his son... Continue Reading →
June 7, 1986 In northern Virginia, the opening of a 9.1-mile (14.7-kilometer) extension of the Washington Metro rapid transit system’s Orange Line was celebrated with great fanfare. The public debut of this extension marked the official completion of the Orange Line a little over seven-and-a-half years after the inauguration of its first segment. This line’s... Continue Reading →
June 6, 1933 The first open air drive-in movie theater opened on Crescent Boulevard in Camden, New Jersey. Richard M. Hollingshead (1899-1975), finding a new way to use the “horseless carriage,” worked out the details for that theater by experimenting with the setup in his own driveway. One major challenge involved the automobiles that would... Continue Reading →
June 5, 1935 The New York, New Haven & Hartford (NH) Railroad officially introduced its double-ended diesel electric passenger train Comet for service between Boston, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island. This streamliner -- a high-speed railway vehicle designed to provide reduced air resistance and also the precursor to a later era’s “bullet train” -- had... Continue Reading →
June 2, 2007 A late-morning dedication ceremony -- complete with a ribbon-cutting -- was held for a trail in the Aspetuck River Valley area of southwestern Connecticut. Those taking part in the festivities for this new trail included Gina McCarthy, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (now part of the Connecticut Department of... Continue Reading →
June 1, 1905 A year after construction on it had begun, a lighthouse on the eastern edge of Middle Island in Lake Huron officially went into service. (Middle Island is about 10 miles [16 kilometers] north of the city of Alpena in Michigan.) The first person to serve as keeper at Middle Island Light was... Continue Reading →
May 30, 1914 The Cunard Line ship RMS Aquitania, in her maiden voyage, left Liverpool, England, for New York. In doing so, Aquitania joined the RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania as Cunard Line’s “grand trio” of express ocean liners providing regular transatlantic service. Aquitania would be nicknamed “Ship Beautiful” due to her reputation as one... Continue Reading →
May 26, 1927 Automotive pioneer Henry Ford sent a telegram that went out under the name of his son Edsel to all 10,000 of the Ford automobile dealers. This telegram announced that, after 19 years of manufacturing the influential and popular Model T, the company would replace that model with an “entirely new Ford car.” Along... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 