Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Amsterdam's Coen Tunnel was opened by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. Travel between the city and suburb of Zaandam before the tunnel was built was largely by ferry and the Schellingwouder bridge and, as traffic grew during the 1950s, proved to be a large bottleneck. Wait times for the ferry often stretched to 45 minutes... Continue Reading →
The SS Savannah became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship was built in 1818 by the New York shipbuilding firm of Fickett & Crockett. During its construction, Captain Moses Rogers asked the Savannah-based shipping company, Scarborough & Isaacs, to convert it to a steamship with the goal of providing the world's... Continue Reading →
Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, landed safely back on Earth after a three-day mission on orbit. Tereshkova was born in central Russia in 1937 to so-called 'proletarian' parents, and out of school worked at a textile factory. She developed a passion for skydiving during this period, and this skill brought her to the... Continue Reading →
Henry Berliner, a Washington D.C. native, son of an inventor, and a technical genius in his own right demonstrated a prototype helicopter to the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics in College Park, Maryland. Berliner was the sixth son of Emile Berliner, and after a brief stint as an aerial photographer with the Army Air Service,... Continue Reading →
Tsuru Shima Lighthouse, which can be found on the island of Tsuru Shima in southeastern Japan and remains in operation today, was first lit. This lighthouse was one of 26 in the Land of the Rising Sun that were designed by Scottish-born engineer Richard Henry Brunton during the early years of the Meiji era, a... Continue Reading →
Air Mauritius, the national airline of Mauritius, was officially established. It made its debut just nine months before Mauritius, an island nation in the Indian Ocean that is about 1,200 miles (1,900 km) off Africa’s southeast coast, ceased to exist as a British colony and instead became an independent state within the British Commonwealth. Air... Continue Reading →
A new light rail system began operations in Genoa, Italy’s sixth largest city (nicknamed “The Proud One” for its storied past and historic landmarks). The debut of the first section of the single-line Genoa Metro coincided with the 14th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament; that year’s competition was sponsored by... Continue Reading →
Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, who has played a key role in the development of public transportation in India, was born in the town of Pattambi in South India’s present-day state of Kerala. Sreedharan studied civil engineering at the Government Engineering College (now called Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University) in Kakinada, and eventually secured a position with the Indian... Continue Reading →
Australia’s Tarrawingee Tramway made its formal debut. The Tarrawingee Tramway covered approximately 40 miles between the city of Broken Hill and the town of Tarrawingee in the far western region of the colony (now state) of New South Wales. The primary reason for building the tramway was to facilitate the shipment of high-grade limestone mined at... Continue Reading →
Air India, which is now India’s national airline, achieved a major milestone with its first international flight. The plane used for this flight was a Lockheed Constellation L-749A aircraft named Malabar Princess. The plane, which was piloted by Captain K.R. Guzdar, flew out of Bombay (now known as Mumbai) for its pioneering 5,000-mile journey to... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 