Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
December 20, 1920 Linton Hope, who earned widespread fame for his contributions to yacht and aircraft design, died in the market town and civil parish of Midhurst in southeastern England. He was 57. Hope had been born April 18, 1863, in northwestern England’s market town and civil parish of Macclesfield as Linton Chorley Hopps. He... Continue Reading →
December 6, 1875 Albert Bond Lambert was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He led an eventful life in several decidedly different capacities, which included being a golfer in the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics; the president and later chairman of a pharmaceutical company founded by his father (who also helped create the mouthwash Listerine); and police... Continue Reading →
November 26, 1931 Thanksgiving Day in 1931 proved to be memorable in New York City. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade started at 1:30 that afternoon in Manhattan at 110th and Broadway. The large helium balloons being carried in that year’s parade included a turkey, a dragon, a two-headed Martian, the popular cartoon star Felix the... Continue Reading →
November 12, 2008 Operations fully began for a state-of-the-art terminal at Indianapolis International Airport. (This airport, which dates back to 1931, was originally known as Indianapolis Municipal Airport.) The new terminal was named after H. Weir Cook, one of the Hoosier State’s most prominent miliary heroes and aviation trailblazers. Cook had been born in 1892... Continue Reading →
Harold Tantaquidgeon was born on June 18. 1904, in the Mohegan Indian Reservation in southeastern Connecticut’s village of Uncasville. He was the fourth of the seven children of John and Harriet Tantaquidgeon. Harold was a direct descendant of Uncas, a 17th century sachem (chief) of the Mohegans and the person for whom Uncasville was named.... Continue Reading →
October 31, 2020 A newly completed international airport in Germany’s state of Brandenburg was opened for commercial operations. This airport, which is just south of the country’s capital of Berlin, was named after Willy Brandt (1913-1992). Brandt, who had been a staunch opponent of the Nazi regime, served as governing mayor of West Berlin from... Continue Reading →
October 18, 2013 In India’s western state of Maharashtra, a newly completed air traffic control (ATC) tower at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport was formally introduced to the public. This airport serves Maharashtra’s capital city of Mumbai. At the time of its debut, this ATC tower -- with a height of 274.9 feet (83.8... Continue Reading →
October 11, 1927 Ruth Elder (1902-1977) and her co-pilot George W. Haldeman (1898-1982) took off from Long Island’s Roosevelt Field in a yellow Stinson Detroiter monoplane named American Girl for what was supposed to be the longest transatlantic flight to date. Elder and Haldeman, both of whom are depicted in the accompanying photo, planned to... Continue Reading →
October 10, 2012 A major milestone for Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer’s short- to medium-range E-Jets took place when the 900th of those twin-engined jet airliners to be designed and produced was delivered to Kenya Airways. This particular type of E-Jet is formally known as the E-190. Along with acknowledging the numerical significance of the 900th... Continue Reading →
September 18, 1981 Transit entrepreneur Francis Brunner died in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 81. He had been one of the pioneers of sightseeing bus tours along Southern California’s coast -- through a segment of the Santa Monica Mountains region and near the shoreline of the Santa Monica Bay -- and was pivotal in... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 