Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
In Siam (now known as Thailand), the Chaloem Sawan 58 Bridge made its formal debut in the capital city of Bangkok. The bridge, crossing the northern end of a manmade moat called Khlong Khu Mueang Doem in Bangkok’s present-day Phra Nakhon District, was opened by King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) on the second anniversary of the... Continue Reading →
The initial segment of a railway in present-day Italy was opened between the cities of Turin and Novara. At the time, this region was part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. This railway was built by renowned English civil engineering contractor Thomas Brassey, who carried out the project on behalf of the Società Vittorio Emanuele (Victor... Continue Reading →
The cargo ship ARA Canal Beagle was launched in Buenos Aires. She was named after the Beagle Channel, a strait in Tierra del Fuego (an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland). Canal Beagle was the first of three Costa Sur-class cargo ships built for the Argentine Navy to replace increasingly obsolete... Continue Reading →
In southeastern Norway, a new railway line connecting the village of Eidsfoss with the municipality of Tønsberg was dedicated. Jørgen Løvland, who was the minister of labor at the time and would briefly serve as prime minister of Norway later in the decade, officially opened the Tønsberg-Eidsfoss Line (Tønsberg-Eidsfossbanen, or TEB). At the time of... Continue Reading →
Racewalking champion Jared Tallent was born in the city of Ballarat in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria. At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Tallent won his first Olympic medal when he finished third in the men’s 20 kilometers (km) race walk (a distance of 12.4274 miles). He earned a silver medal at those games... Continue Reading →
At the age of 71, Minoru Saitō set sail from his native Japan for a circumnavigation of the globe on board his 50-foot-long yacht Shuten-dohji II. While Saitō previously sailed around the world on his own a total of six times, this particular trip was notable because it would make him the oldest person to... Continue Reading →
During the course of the 19th century, businessman and politician Estévan Ochoa was among the Hispanic Americans who helped pioneer and sustain vital transportation services in what is now the southwestern United States. Ochoa was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1831. His family’s enterprises included a freight-hauling business on the Santa Fe Trail, a major... Continue Reading →
In present-day Poland, a new railway station was opened in the city of Kraków. (At the time, the city had recently become part of a section of the Austrian Empire known as the Grand Duchy of Kraków.) On the same day of the station’s formal debut, the first train to operate at the facility departed... Continue Reading →
In 2006, Ronald J. Rábago was promoted to rear admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG); this made him the first person of Hispanic American descent to attain flag rank in that military branch. (A flag officer is a commissioned officer who is senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark the... Continue Reading →
Automotive entrepreneur August Horch was born in the municipality of Winningen in the Kingdom of Prussia (now part of Germany). After graduating from Mittweida Technical College with a degree in engineering, Horch pursued a career in shipbuilding before shifting his focus to another mode of transportation. In 1896, he began working for automobile pioneer Karl... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 