Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
March 7, 1889 Pioneering naval aviator Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1910 and then embarked on a comparatively short-lived but significant aviation career. Chevalier, who would be described in one news account as “one of the navy’s most daring aviators,” took to the... Continue Reading →
March 4, 1890 Scotland’s Forth Bridge, spanning across the estuary Firth of Forth, made its official debut. This cantilever railway bridge was built to carry two tracks of the North British Railway through a stretch of territory between the city of Edinburgh and the council area of Firth. The Forth Bridge -- also known as the Forth... Continue Reading →
March 3, 1910 Transportation pioneer Dorothy Levitt was one of the featured speakers at a mid-afternoon meeting of the English Women’s Aerial League at the renowned Criterion Restaurant in London, England. The league had been established the previous year and was focused on promoting both advances in aircraft technology and the involvement of women in... Continue Reading →
February 28, 1900 The U.S. Navy vessel USS Dart (YFB-308) was launched at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard (MINSY) at the waterfront city of Vallejo, California. MINSY, which is located 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco, had been built during the 1850s and was the first U.S. Navy base established on the Pacific... Continue Reading →
February 25, 1851 In Wisconsin, the first passenger train of the Milwaukee & Mississippi (M&M) Railroad made its inaugural trip between Milwaukee and the town (now city) of Waukesha. This railroad had actually begun operations just a little over three months earlier. The debut of passenger service on that line, however, proved to be an exuberant celebration. ... Continue Reading →
February 24, 1909 In Detroit, eight businessmen met to establish a company under Michigan state law that would produce automobiles selling for less than $1,000. This meeting marked the start of the Hudson Motor Car Company. The company was named after Joseph L. Hudson, who was a Detroit department store entrepreneur and one of those eight businessmen. ... Continue Reading →
February 23, 1970 The Indian Pacific passenger train began its inaugural coast-to-coast trip in Australia. After what the Canberra Times called “a glittering lace-gowned ceremony,” the westbound train left Central Railway Station in Sydney on Australia’s southeastern coast along the Pacific Ocean at 10:50 p.m. “Train Sets Out to Span the Continent,” proclaimed a headline in... Continue Reading →
February 21, 1900 A newly constructed lighthouse began operations on Somes Island (now officially known as Matiu/Somes Island) in the northern half of Wellington Harbour on the southern tip of New Zealand’s North Island. At the time of this lighthouse’s debut, New Zealand was a British colony; it gained semi-independent status as a dominion of... Continue Reading →
February 18, 2015 A newly built train station was officially dedicated in the city of Tukwila in Washington’s King County. (Tukwila is located just south of Seattle.) Tukwila station was constructed by Sound Transit (ST), a public agency serving the Seattle metropolitan area, as a replacement for a temporary station that had been at that... Continue Reading →
February 17, 2005 In Japan’s Chubu (Central) region, an international airport was officially opened on an artificial island in Ise Bay within the city of Tokoname. Chubu Centrair International Airport – widely called Centrair -- was built to replace Nagoya Airport (now a domestic secondary airport known as Nagoya Airfield) as that area’s primary access... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 