Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
August 8, 1303 In the eastern Mediterranean basin, a violent earthquake – and the major tsunami it triggered – led to widespread destruction and death throughout the region. The best-known casualty of these natural disasters was the longstanding lighthouse in Alexandria, Egypt, that had achieved renown as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient... Continue Reading →
August 7, 1908 In Italy, a front-page announcement in the Milan-based newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport (The Sports Gazette) formally marked the start of a new chapter in the nation’s bicycling history: the inaugural multi-day bicycle race known as the Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy) would take the place the following year under the newspaper’s... Continue Reading →
August 6, 1889 Railroad promoter and builder George Laidlaw died at the age of 61 near the community of Coboconk in the south-central region of Ontario, Canada. Laidlaw, who was born in the Highlands of Scotland in 1828, had an irrepressibly adventurous approach to life. This was in large part the driving force for him to... Continue Reading →
August 5, 1919 A week after the U.S. Army’s Cross-Country Motor Transport Train had traveled across the Missouri River to enter Nebraska, it continued to make its way through the Cornhusker State. Early on the morning of Tuesday, August 5, the convoy’s participants left North Platte after spending two nights there. The expedition’s efforts to... Continue Reading →
August 2, 1947 About nine years before President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the bill formally establishing the Interstate Highway System, the general locations of the first designated routes for that proposed network were announced. This announcement was made by Major General Philip B. Fleming, administrator of the Federal Works Agency (which included the Public... Continue Reading →
August 1, 1946 A major European airline was established to handle the intercontinental flights of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. This new entity was named Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), and it specifically started out as a consortium pooling together the operations and resources of Swedish Intercontinental Airlines, Danish Air Lines and Norwegian Air Lines. Per A.... Continue Reading →
July 31, 1865 In the northeastern section of Australia, the inaugural train run of the world’s first narrow-gauge mainline railway occurred on a Monday morning in the colony (present-day state) of Queensland. A large number of people gathered to witness the record-setting railway’s formal debut, which took place on what the Queensland Times called a... Continue Reading →
July 30, 1978 It was a day of many logistical challenges and a large number of confused motorists in the southernmost section of Japan, as Okinawa Prefecture (one of the nation’s 47 main administrative divisions) officially switched its traffic patterns from driving on the right-hand side of the road back to driving on the left-hand... Continue Reading →
July 29, 1919 One week after the U.S. Army’s Cross-Country Motor Transport Train traveled across the Mississippi River via the High Bridge to enter Iowa, this convoy crossed over the Missouri River to leave the Hawkeye State and journey through neighboring Nebraska for several days. The convoy departed the Iowa city of Council Bluffs at... Continue Reading →
July 26, 1997 The U.S. Navy cargo vessel USNS Watson was launched at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company’s shipyard in San Diego. U.S. Secretary of the Army Togo D. West, Jr., was the principal speaker at the ceremony and his wife Gail christened the new ship with a bottle of champagne. (The vessel’s prefix... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 