Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
March 9, 1985 James Evans, an engineer with the Texas Department of Transportation, spearheaded the effort to keep the roadways around his Tyler, Texas community clean of litter. He'd noticed trash flying out of the back of a pickup truck and decided to take action. Initially, he approached civic and community groups to volunteer to... Continue Reading →
March 6, 1965 Commander James R. Williford and his crew took off from the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Hornet on a record-setting non-stop helicopter flight across the country. The Sikorsky SH-3A Sea King helicopter was named Dawdling Dromedary, and Williford, Lieutenant David A. Beil, and Aviation Machinist Mate 1st Class Paul J. Bert began... Continue Reading →
March 5, 1919 Finlandās Helsinki Central railway station was officially opened.Ā This structure replaced a station that had been built in 1862 but was no longer large enough to accommodate the ever-growing number of trains and passengers. The new and larger station was designed by architect Eliel Saarinen, whose proposed plans were selected from a total... Continue Reading →
March 4, 2000 Ā In the downtown area of Daytona Beach in Floridaās Volusia County, construction began on a new and unique segmental bridge to carry U.S. Highway 92 over the Halifax River (part of the Intracoastal Waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States).Ā This structure was the third one... Continue Reading →
March 3, 1970 With the inauguration of a new terminal and other recently completed infrastructure, the airport in the town and municipality of San BartolomĆ© on Lanzarote ā the northernmost and easternmost of the seven Canary Islands ā was opened to a significantly higher-than-before number of civilian domestic and international flights. This increase in regular... Continue Reading →
In 1910, transportation pioneer Marie Marvingt was formally recognized by the French Academy of Sports for her wide range of accomplishments in sporting activities.Ā The gold medal that was presented to Marvingt on this occasion would be the only one ever given by the academy for more than one sport. āSwimming, cycling, mountain climbing, ballooning, flying,... Continue Reading →
Katherine Johnson was one of the pioneering National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) African-American females to be featured, along with supervisor and mathematician Dorothy Vaughan and engineer Mary Jackson, in the 2016 film Hidden Figures. (Johnson was portrayed in that Oscar-nominated film by Taraji P. Henson, with Octavia Spencer playing the part of Vaughan and... Continue Reading →
February 27, 1869 Greeceās first railroad line ā as well as one of the oldest metropolitan-area transit systems in the world ā was officially opened to serve Athens and its vicinity. The Athens & Piraeus Railway commenced its regular operations along a 5.5-mile (8.8-kilometer) route with a steam locomotive that pulled six cars from the... Continue Reading →
February 26, 1930 The Texas Highway Commission (a predecessor of todayās Texas Transportation Commission) approved the designation of a new highway to be built through the longtime State Cemetery in the city of Austin. The origins of this cemetery in the eastern part of Texasās state capital date back to the 1850s. The State Cemetery,... Continue Reading →
February 25, 1985 In Australia, a major milestone for Kendell Airlines took place when that record-setting regional airline in Australia, added the twin-engine turboprop aircraft Saab 340 to its fleet. These 34-seat civilian planes, which had made their public debut only two years earlier, were built by the Swedish aerospace and defense company Saab AB... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 