Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
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 →
June 5, 1927 Under the command of Brazilian aviator João Ribeiro de Barros, the Savoia-Marchetti S.55 hydroplane known as Jahú first touched down on the South American mainland as part of its long-distance flight across much of the South Atlantic. This aircraft landed at the city of Natal in northeastern Brazil 38 days after departing... Continue Reading →
March 20, 1910 The Montedor Lighthouse (Farol de Montedor) along Portugal’s Atlantic coast officially went into service. This 92-foot (28-meter)-tall granite tower, which stands on a promontory that is part of the municipality of Viana de Castelo, has the distinction of being the northernmost lighthouse in Portugal. The Montedor Lighthouse is seven nautical miles (13... Continue Reading →
August 10, 1905 In a significant leg of her maiden voyage, the twin-screw steamship (TSS) Arahura circled the rocky headland long known as the Cape of Good Hope on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula. (At the time, this section of the present-day Republic of South Africa was the part of the British Empire... Continue Reading →
May 11, 2018 The research vessel Eugen Seibold was launched at the German city of Kiel, which is located on the southwestern shore of the Baltic Sea. Construction on this sailing yacht had begun the previous year. Measuring 72.2 feet (22 meters) in length, the Eugen Seibold is used for the study and contamination-free sampling... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 