Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
June 9, 1853 A railway station in the city of Aalst in northwestern Belgium was opened. This facility was built as one of the stations for the Belgian State Railways, which had been established in 1834 as the country’s first state-owned railway system. Aalst railway station was designed by architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar (1811-1880). He also... Continue Reading →
June 8, 2016 Fireboat 20, a ship equipped with state-of-the-art firefighting apparatus, was officially commissioned into service at Long Beach, California, as one of the vessels to be used by that city’s fire department. During the Wednesday afternoon commissioning ceremony at the Port of Long Beach Joint Command and Control Center, the vessel was renamed... Continue Reading →
June 7, 2019 The first commercial flight of a newly established airline in Nigeria took place. Ibom Air is operated by the government of Akwa Ibom State in the country’s southeastern region. With the launch of Ibom Air, Akwa Ibom became the first of Nigeria’s 36 states to have its own airline. The plane used... Continue Reading →
June 6, 1933 More than two years after construction on it had begun, a bridge spanning a section of the Nile River in Egypt’s capital city of Cairo was officially opened. This bridge was inaugurated by King Fuad I (1868-1936), who served as ruler of Egypt from 1917 until his death in 1936. (He served... Continue Reading →
June 3, 2006 A marked canoeing trail that runs through a region between the hamlet of Old Forge in New York and the town of Fort Kent in Maine was officially opened. This trail was developed within the Northern Forest, a combination of hardwood and boreal forests that collectively comprise the largest continuous forest in... Continue Reading →
June 2, 1852 Eduard Spelterini, who would achieve widespread fame for his balloon ascents and the photographs that he took during those flights, was born in the village of Bazenheid in Switzerland. He developed a strong interest in travel via balloons after moving to Paris in the mid-1870s. In 1877, Spelterini was licensed as a... Continue Reading →
June 1, 1906 Work was completed on a lighthouse in the southeastern region of the then-Territory of Alaska. This octagonal structure is specifically located on Eldred Rock, an island that is in the Pacific Ocean and adjacent to the inlet known as Lynn Canal. The Eldred Rock Light was the last of 10 lighthouses built... Continue Reading →
Raja Chari, whose considerable flight experience so far has included a journey into space, was born in Milwaukee in 1977 to Sreenivas V. “Shari” Chari and Peggy Egbert. “Shari” Chari, an engineer, had been born in the city of Hyderabad in India in 1942. He and Peggy Egbert met in Milwaukee while he was a... Continue Reading →
May 27, 1931 Auguste Piccard, a world-renowned physicist and inventor, and his fellow physicist Paul Kipfer achieved a record-setting balloon flight in which they became the first human beings to enter into the stratosphere. (The stratosphere is the second layer of Earth’s atmosphere; it is located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere.) Auguste Piccard... Continue Reading →
May 26, 1932 In Denmark, a royal yacht was officially commissioned as an auxiliary ship of the Royal Danish Navy. His Danish Majesty’s Yacht (HDMY) Dannebrog (A540), which was named after the national flag of Denmark, had been built at the Naval Shipyard in Copenhagen. She was launched by Queen Alexandrine (1879-1952), who reigned as... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 