Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Canadian aviation pioneer Lorna de Blicquy was born in 1931 near the town of Goderich in the province of Ontario. De Blicquy, who developed a strong interest in aviation after a cousin took her for a flight over the Canadian capital of Ottawa, started to take flying lessons when she was only 14. At the... Continue Reading →
March 7, 1877 The first train of the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad began operations on a 14-mile (22.5-kilometer)-long stretch between the city of Seattle and town (present-day city) of Renton in what was then the Territory of Washington. (This territory became a state more than 11 years later.) The San Francisco Chronicle reported, “Excursion... Continue Reading →
In 1896, a book entitled The Common Sense of Bicycling: Bicycling for Ladies was published by Brentano’s, Inc. The book’s author was New York resident Maria E. Ward, a dedicated bicyclist and active member of the Staten Island Bicycle Club. At a time when bicycling had become a favorite activity throughout the United States, there... Continue Reading →
March 5, 1923 Aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky established the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation on Long Island, thereby opening a new and significant chapter in aircraft development. Igor Sikorsky immigrated to the United States from his native Russia in 1919 with comparatively little money and no job, but a strong interest and ability when it came... Continue Reading →
Ida Lewis, who helped her invalid father Captain Hosea Lewis of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service operate Lime Rock Lighthouse in Rhode Island’s Newport Harbor, achieved national renown in 1869 when she rescued two soldiers from icy waters. The soldiers, Sergeant James Adams and Private John McLaughlin, were traveling through Newport Harbor in a... Continue Reading →
Janet Guthrie, who blazed new trails for women as a professional race car driver, was born in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1938. Initially, her transportation-oriented aspirations were focused on airborne travel. Guthrie earned a pilot’s license when she was only 17. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she worked for several years as a... Continue Reading →
February 28, 1995 Denver International Airport, which is located approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the downtown section of Colorado’s state capital, officially opened for business. This facility debuted the day after its predecessor, Stapleton International Airport in the northeastern part of Denver, ceased operations after more than 65 years of service. The inaugural festivities... Continue Reading →
African-American publisher Robert Sengstacke Abbott, who was born in Georgia in 1870, creatively utilized a coast-to-coast rail transportation network to disseminate and popularize his newspaper The Chicago Defender. The son of one-time slaves, Abbott launched the newspaper in the Windy City in 1905. The Chicago Defender, focusing on African-Americans and the civil rights challenges that... Continue Reading →
February 26, 1931 Sam Hill, an ambitious businessman, and entrepreneur whose strongest passions included surface transportation died in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 73. While a number of stories about him are likely apocryphal – a key example being that he was the source of the popular saying “What in Sam Hill . .... Continue Reading →
In 1936, Victor Hugo Green first developed an annual guide to help his fellow African-Americans more effectively and safely go on road trips despite the pervasiveness of Jim Crow laws and other forms of racial discrimination. Green, who was a World War I veteran and New York City mailman, came up with the guide to... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 