Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
December 12, 1951 With the holiday season in full swing throughout much of the globe, a four-engined Douglas DC-4 airliner made its way over the North Pole to deliver more than 5,000 letters to Santa Claus. This jolly old elf had been identified as a resident there at least as far back as 1866, when... Continue Reading →
September 5, 2015 The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC Healy (WAGB-20) achieved a major transportation milestone when she became the first American surface vessel to reach the North Pole unaccompanied. Healy had been commissioned in 1999. She was named after Michael A. Healy (1839-1904), a career officer with the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service (a predecessor... Continue Reading →
June 27, 1923 The first-ever transfer of fuel from one aircraft to another during flight took place between two Airco DH-4B planes of the U.S. Army Air Service in the skies above the San Diego area. The plane piloted by Captain Lowell H. Smith (with Lieutenant John P. Richter on board) received that mid-air refueling via... Continue Reading →
March 22, 1937 USCGC Chelan, a U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) cutter under the command of Captain Lyndon Spencer, was among the vessels to respond to distress calls from the Norwegian steamship SS Bjerkli in the North Atlantic. Bjerkli, stranded 660 nautical miles (1,220 kilometers) east of Boston, was being pounded by an 80-mile (128.8-kilometer) gale.... Continue Reading →
July 25, 1916 The North and South State Highway Association of Idaho was founded to help promote a 500-mile (804.7-kilometer) route more directly linking the northern and southern regions of the state. The launch of that association took place during a decade heavily characterized by an ever-increasing interest and involvement in building and maintaining roads... Continue Reading →
July 22, 1908 The automobile coachbuilder Fisher Body Company was established in Detroit. This company’s ancestry can be traced to Lawrence Fisher, who -- along with his brother Andrew and brother-in-law Joseph Weisenberger -- set up Fisher Brothers Carriage Company in Norwalk, Ohio, in 1880 to produce horse-drawn vehicles. All seven of Lawrence Fisher’s sons spent... 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 →
Rex Marion Whitton, who became a leading U.S. highway official, was born in 1898, in Jackson County, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Missouri in 1920 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Whitton then began what became his 40-year career with the Missouri State Highway Department. (In 1980, the Missouri State Highway Department was... Continue Reading →
July 17, 1879 The earliest public railway to exist in the present-day state of Hawaii began operations on the island of Maui. The first train to run along that narrow-gauge track was pulled along by a locomotive named after Queen Emma, who had been queen consort of what was then the Kingdom of Hawaii. This new... Continue Reading →
May 21, 1927 Charles A. Lindbergh, flying his plane "The Spirit of St. Louis," arrived at Le Bourget Field near Paris, France, 33-and-a-half hours after he departed from Roosevelt Airfield in Garden City, New York. That long journey made the pilot widely known as "The Lone Eagle" the first person to complete a solo non-stop,... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 