Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 10, 1876 The Centennial International Exhibition -- held in Philadelphia to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in that city -- was opened. Officially called the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures and Products of the Soil and Mine, it was the first actual World’s Fair held in the United... Continue Reading →
May 6, 2006 After making its final flight, the Lockheed C-141C Starlifter strategic airlift plane best known as “Hanoi Taxi” touched down at 9:30 a.m. at Wright Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) in Ohio for a formal retirement ceremony there at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force (USAF). This plane, which was delivered... Continue Reading →
May 5, 1835 The first steam passenger railway in continental Europe was opened in Belgium. This section of railway, which connected the cities of Brussels and Mechelen, was the initial segment of the Belgian Railway Line 25. English civil engineer George Stephenson was among the first to travel on the new line. His company, as a... Continue Reading →
May 4, 1870 George Preston Coleman, who would become chairman of the Virginia State Highway Commission (the Old Dominion State’s original highway agency) and the second president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHO), was born in Williamsburg, Virginia. Coleman came from a family of high-profile lawyers, professors, and public officials.... Continue Reading →
May 3, 1865 The French government formally authorized the start of construction on the Phare des Pierres Noires (Black Rocks Lighthouse) on the northwest coast of France. This conical structure is specifically located at Le Conquet, which is a commune in the department of Finistère (an administrative division of France’s Brittany region). Le Conquet is... Continue Reading →
April 29, 1915 In San Francisco, the schooner SS Wapama began a long and varied career when she was officially entered into service as a ship of the Charles McCormick Lumber Company. The “ownership oath” for this acquisition of the Wapama was completed on that date by Sidney Hauptman, the company’s secretary. Two days later,... Continue Reading →
April 28, 1903 The second day of the National Good Roads Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, took place. This convention was held at the Odeon Theater on North Grand Avenue. The significance of the convention in promoting the need for good roads nationwide was a theme highlighted both by those who addressed the delegates that day... Continue Reading →
April 27, 2005 In the skies over southeastern France, the largest-ever passenger plane made its first flight. The 308-ton (279.4-metric ton), double-decked Airbus A380 -- with a length of 238 feet and seven inches (72.7 meters) and a wingspan of 261 feet and eight inches (79.8 meters) -- made it back to Toulouse Blagnac International Airport three hours... Continue Reading →
April 26, 1838 On Europa Point -- the southernmost tip of the British crown colony (now overseas territory) of Gibraltar -- efforts officially began on the construction of a lighthouse at the Atlantic Ocean’s entrance to the Mediterranean Sea. Sir Alexander George Woodford, the colony’s governor and commander-in-chief, laid the foundation stone for the lighthouse with... Continue Reading →
April 25, 1960 A global circumnavigation milestone took place when the U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton (SSRN-586) completed the first submerged voyage around the world. The U.S. Navy’s code name for this pioneering circumnavigation was Operation Sandblast. Triton, which had been commissioned the previous November and was under the command of Captain Edward L. “Ned” Beach,... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 