Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 2, 1906 Thomas F. Airis, who would become director of the District of Columbia’s Department of Highways and Traffic (a predecessor of the present-day District Department of Transportation) was born in the town of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He earned his degree in, civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin. In 1929, Airis joined the... Continue Reading →
During his long career as an architect, Gyo Obata achieved international acclaim for the wide range of major buildings that he designed. He was born to Japanese immigrants on February 28, 1923, in San Francisco. His mother Haruko Obata was a well-established floral designer and his father Chiura Obata became a widely known artist. ... Continue Reading →
April 26, 1977 Samantha Cristoforetti, a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, was born in the major Italian city of Milan. She grew up in Malé, a commune (municipality) that is likewise located in the northern region of Italy. Cristoforetti traveled to the United States at the age of 18 as an exchange student in the... Continue Reading →
April 23, 1988 The ancient mythical flight of the craftsman Daedalus, who reportedly took to the skies while flapping wings made of feathers and wax, was recreated by Kanellos Kanellopoulos. The 30-year-old Greek cycling champion accomplished this with a pink-and-silver pedal-plane that had been built by the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department of the Massachusetts Institute of... Continue Reading →
April 12, 1997 A new and larger terminal for the international airport on the Spanish island of Mallorca (also known as Majorca) was officially inaugurated. Mallorca is the largest of Spain’s Balearic Islands, an archipelago in the western region of the Mediterranean Sea. The Mallorcan city of Palma is the capital of those islands, which... Continue Reading →
April 2, 1939 An airport serving Ribeirão Preto, a municipality in southeastern Brazil’s state of São Paulo, was opened. In 1956, this airport was officially named in honor of Brazilian scientist Leite Lopes (1918-2006). Lopes gained renown for his work in quantum field theory and particle physics. In the course of his long and productive... Continue Reading →
March 26, 1931 Swissair, which would become Switzerland’s national airline, was officially established. This airline was formed from a merger between two other Swiss airlines -- Ad Astra Aero (dating back to 1919) and Balair (founded in 1925). One of Swissair’s founders was renowned aviation pioneer Walter Mittelholzer (1894-1937), whose key airborne accomplishments included making the... Continue Reading →
March 21, 1999 The first nonstop flight around the world by balloon came to an end in western Egypt. The pilots and sole passengers for this record-setting journey were 41-year-old psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard and 51-year-old English balloonist and former Royal Air Force pilot Brian Jones. They landed the helium-and-hot-air balloon, which was named in honor... Continue Reading →
March 19, 1947 William Starling Burgess, whose transportation legacy spans multiple means of mobility, died at his home in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was 68. Burgess was born in Boston on Christmas Day in 1878. His father, Edward Burgess, was a renowned yacht designer. Early on in life, William Starling Burgess demonstrated a high level... Continue Reading →
Aviation pioneer and Olympic athlete Iris Cummings, who is also known by married name Iris Critchell, was on December 21, 1920, in Los Angeles. She attended the 1932 Summer Olympics in that city and shortly thereafter began swimming competitively. Cummings went on to win a large number of local and regional tournaments in this sport.... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 