Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 21, 1901 In response to the steady increase of automobiles on its roads, the state of Connecticut enacted a pioneering speed limits law. This law required that automobiles travel no faster than 12 miles (19.3 kilometers) per hour within cities and 15 miles (24.1 kilometers) per hour on roads elsewhere. The law also required automobile drivers... Continue Reading →
May 20, 1946 Jacob Ellehammer, a longtime watchmaker who also used his mechanical talents to make seminal contributions to transportation, died in Denmark’s capital city of Copenhagen. He was 74. Ellehammer was born in the Danish village of Bakkebølle on June 14, 1871. After completing his apprenticeship as a watchmaker, he moved to Copenhagen and... Continue Reading →
May 17, 1970 Norwegian maritime adventurer Thor Heyerdahl set sail from Morocco in a boat made out of papyrus for a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The 55-year-old Heyerdahl had achieved fame in 1947 when he sailed 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) in a raft known as the “Kon-Tiki” from Peru to French Polynesia to show that... Continue Reading →
May 16, 1929 The first-ever “Best Picture” Oscar went to a movie about planes. Wings, which was also the only silent movie to win that award, told the story of two men who are in love with the same woman and end up becoming fighter pilots in World War I. The actors who played these men... Continue Reading →
Shailen P. Bhatt was officially sworn in by Pete Buttigieg, U.S. secretary of transportation, on January 13, 2023, to serve as head of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). This inaugural ceremony made Bhatt the 21st administrator of FHWA and the first person of Indian descent to step into that leadership position. The previous month, Bhatt... Continue Reading →
May 14, 2005 French pilot Didier Delsalle (born in 1957) became the first and to date only person to land a helicopter on top of Mount Everest. With an elevation of 29,030 feet (8,848 meters), Mount Everest -- located at the border between Nepal and Tibet in the Himalayas -- is Earth’s highest mountain above... Continue Reading →
May 13, 1968 The U.S. Navy survey ship USNS Chauvenet (T-AGS-29) was launched in the Scottish port city of Glasgow. (“USNS” stands for “U.S. Navy Ship”; this designation is used for non-commissioned ships that, while owned by the U.S. Navy, are largely operated and crewed by the Military Sealift Command [MSC] or other civilian-staffed naval... Continue Reading →
May 10, 1865 A foundation stone was laid for the third and current version of St Bees Lighthouse in northwestern England. This ceremony marked the start of construction on this structure on the headland known as St Bees Head, which overlooks the Irish Sea. Those on hand for the ceremony included Henry Norris, an engineer... Continue Reading →
May 9, 1932 Albert Francis Hegenberger (1895-1983), an aviation pioneer and U.S. Army Air Corps captain, became the world’s first person to make a “blind” instrument-only flight from takeoff to landing without any co-pilot on board with him. This flight took place in the skies above Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Hegenberger had developed that blind... Continue Reading →
On April 19, 2021, the autonomous NASA helicopter Ingenuity (nicknamed Ginny) lifted off the surface of Mars for what turned out to be a flight of 39.1 seconds. While decidedly brief, this ascent was also historic because it made Ingenuity the first aircraft to carry out a powered, controlled extra-terrestrial flight. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 