Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
October 16, 1908 An American made what is officially recognized as the first controlled, powered, and sustained heavier-than-air flight in the United Kingdom. Samuel Franklin (S.F.) Cody achieved this milestone when he piloted British Army Aeroplane No. 1, which he designed and built, off the ground in the town of Farnborough in southeastern England. Cody... Continue Reading →
October 14, 1890 President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as the 34th U.S. president between 1953 and 1961, was born in Denison, Texas. One of the defining moments of his presidency was when he signed into law the landmark Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 that made the Interstate System a reality. The provisions in Title... Continue Reading →
October 13, 1860 A milestone in aviation occurred in the skies above Boston, Massachusetts, when James Wallace Black took photographs of the city while traveling above it in a hot-air balloon. Black, a one-time artist who set aside his palettes and paint brushes to pursue instead the still-nascent endeavor of photography, flew over Boston in a... Continue Reading →
October 9, 1834 In a trial run, the steam locomotive Hibernia pulled a train consisting of eight carriages on the newly built Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR) line in Ireland. (At that time, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged together as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; this sovereign state remained in... Continue Reading →
October 8, 1897 A large parade of bicyclists took place in Louisville, Kentucky. The event, which was part of a carnival celebration, reflected the strong enthusiasm for bicycling throughout that era. On the day before the parade, the city’s Courier-Journal newspaper even ventured that the event could be “as pretty a bicycle display as has ever... Continue Reading →
The Tetsuo Harano Tunnels on Hawaii’s island of O’ahu were formally opened during dedication ceremonies on November 23, 1994. The Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) had begun construction on both tunnels in 1990. The Tetsuo Harano Tunnels, which HDOT spokesperson Marilyn Kali described as “the absolute state of the art” at the time of their... Continue Reading →
October 5, 1997 The Lincoln Alexander Parkway, which is also known as The Linc, was formally opened in the city of Hamilton in the Canadian province of Ontario. Measuring 7.8 miles (12.5 kilometers) in length, this municipal expressway connects King’s Highway 403 with the Red Hill Valley Parkway in Hamilton. Plans for the Lincoln Alexander... Continue Reading →
October 2, 1930 USCGC Saranac, one of the Lake-class cutters of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), was officially commissioned as a vessel of that military branch. This cutter had been launched in April of that year at the yards of the General Engineering and Drydock Company in Oakland, California. USCG Captain John Boedker oversaw the... Continue Reading →
October 1, 1936 The Cape Columbine Lighthouse first went into service on the west coast of the Union of South Africa (predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa). That area had long been notorious for the hazards to vessels posed by numerous submerged rocks and reefs in the local waters. Both the lighthouse... Continue Reading →
On August 6, 1938, a newly constructed steel through arch bridge was formally opened in Middlesex County in south-central Connecticut. This structure, spanning the Connecticut River and connecting the city of Middletown with the town of Portland, took the place of a drawbridge that had been opened in 1896. The building of a replacement bridge... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 