Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Racing cyclist Coryn Rivera Labecki was born on August 26, 1992, in the city of Garden Grove, California. She grew up in the nearby city of Tustin. Both of Coryn’s parents were Filipino immigrants; her father Wally Rivera had been born in Tondo, a district of the Philippines’ capital city of Manila, and her mother... Continue Reading →
Ken Munechika, who made notable contributions as both an aerospace engineer and U.S. Air Force (USAF) officer, was born on June 18, 1935, in Pākalā Village on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. (At the time, Hawaii was a U.S. territory; it became the 50th state in 1959.) Munechika’s first name at birth was Kenji. As... Continue Reading →
In January 2021, Giao Phan became executive director of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). She was the first Asian American woman to serve in this position at the largest and most complex of the U.S. Navy’s five materiel agencies responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of various military systems. Phan was born in... Continue Reading →
April 27, 1922 Sheila Scott, who would break more than 100 aviation records, was born in the cathedral city of Worcester in central England. Prior to her pursuit of flying, she worked in such varied fields as nursing and acting. Scott learned how to fly in 1958. After nine months of training, she began to... Continue Reading →
April 17, 1962 A dedication ceremony took place for an airport in the vicinity of Bhubaneswar, the capital city of eastern India’s state of Odisha. This airport was specifically dedicated to the people of Odisha, and it had the distinction of being the first commercial airport in the state. The airport is named after Biju... Continue Reading →
April 8, 1956 In the Brazilian state of Paranã, operations began for a newly relocated airport about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the downtown section of the city of Londrina. This milestone took place two decades after Londrina Airport had first gone into service with an unpaved runway in the city’s Vila Isabel neighborhood. The... Continue Reading →
March 27, 1980 A concept car built by British manufacturer Aston Martin was formally introduced to the public at the Bell Hotel in southeastern England’s village and civil parish of Aston Clinton. (Concept cars are automobiles created to exhibit new styling or innovative technologies; these vehicles are often displayed at motor shows.) The concept car... Continue Reading →
March 20, 1956 Only four days after his 76th birthday, inventor and engineer William Bushnell Stout died of a heart attack at his home in Phoenix, Arizona. Stout, who made significant innovations in the aviation and automotive fields, had been born in 1880 in Quincy, Illinois. After graduating from the Mechanic Arts High School in... Continue Reading →
March 13, 1886 Albert William Stevens, who achieved renown as a balloonist and aerial photographer during his service in the U.S. Army, was born in the city of Belfast, Maine. He was the third child of Nathan and Alice Whitten. After his mother died only five months after his birth, he was adopted by Andrew... Continue Reading →
In 1978, Jill E. Brown made aviation history as the first African American woman to become a pilot for a major U.S. passenger airline. She was born in Baltimore in 1950. Her family owned a farm in West Virginia and, by the time she was nine, Brown had begun operating a tractor there and performing... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 