Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
On January 12, 2022, Amitabha “Amit” Bose was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). This Senate confirmation by a vote of 68-29 made Bose the first person of South Asian descent to lead FRA, which is an agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). Bose was born... Continue Reading →
May 9, 1896 The Nord Express (Northern Express) train service was introduced by the Belgian company Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL). This train transported passengers from Paris, France, to Saint Petersburg, Russia, traveling between those two points via the cities of Brussels, Cologne, Hanover, Berlin, Konigsberg (present-day Kalingrad), and Dvinsk (now known as Daugavpils). Following World War... Continue Reading →
May 8, 1913 Two U.S. Navy aviators undertook a record-setting plane flight that began in Washington, D.C. These men were 28-year-old Lieutenant John Henry Towers, chief of the fledgling Naval Aviation Corps that was based at a camp near the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; and 24-year-old Ensign Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier, a student... Continue Reading →
May 5, 1998 An opening ceremony was held for Ting Kau Bridge in Hong Kong. This six-lane bridge, which crosses the body of water known as Rambler Channel serves as a major link between Tsing Yi Island; and the portion of Tuen Mun Road (part of Route 9) that runs through the area of Ting... Continue Reading →
May 4, 1964 Geraldine "Jerrie" Mock, less than three weeks after becoming the first woman to fly solo around the world, was awarded the Federal Aviation Agency's Decoration for Exceptional Service by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This presentation took place in the Rose Garden at the White House. The 38-year-old Mock, in circumnavigating the globe... Continue Reading →
May 3, 1856 A newly built lighthouse at Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia, first went into service. Jones Point Light is located along the Potomac River, just north of where that body of water intersects with Hunting Creek. This lighthouse is a rectangular clapboard building with a circular lantern on its pitched cedar roof. Jones... Continue Reading →
May 2, 1952 The world’s first regular jetliner service made officially made its debut when a De Havilland DH 106 Comet operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation departed London, England, for Johannesburg, South Africa. “This trip officially established a radically new mode of travel that in this decade will become commonplace,” predicted Aubrey O. Cookman, Jr.,... Continue Reading →
On April 29, 2022, Mary MeleNaite Tufui Likio McCray became the first female U.S. Navy officer of Tongan descent. (Tonga is a Polynesian country and archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean.) McCray achieved this naval milestone during a commissioning ceremony in which she transitioned from the enlisted position of Boatswain’s Mate 1st class to the... Continue Reading →
April 28, 1946 The start of the first six-day bicycle race to be held in the United States following the end of World War II took place inside the Chicago Coliseum. Those six-day races had become hugely popular nationwide in the years leading up to the war. A six-day race involved having teams of bicyclists compete against... Continue Reading →
April 27, 1952 The airborne ambulance service known today as Rega -- and also called Swiss Air-Rescue -- was established during the ninth annual meeting of the Swiss Rescue Association (SRA). The SRA delegates in attendance at that meeting, which took place in the municipality of Twann in west-central Switzerland, formally approved creating the Swiss... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 