Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Henry Hope Wong was born to William Hope Wong (originally known as Wong Fook On), a Chinese immigrant, and Cheruo “Mabel” Hope Wong (also identified as Chun Yow) in 1900 in Portland, Oregon. Henry became one of the first people of Chinese descent in that region of the United States to pursue taking to the... Continue Reading →
April 29, 1909 Aviation pioneer Pearl Laska Chamberlain was born to John W. and Lanie C. Bragg on Chestnut Mountain in Summers County, West Virginia. One of eight children, Chamberlain started out life as Lelia Pearl Bragg. At the age of 17, Chamberlain became a school teacher; she remained in this profession to one extent... Continue Reading →
April 14, 1960 Aviation pioneer Dr. William Whitney Christmas died at Bellevue Hospital in New York City at the age of 94. He was born on September 1, 1865, in the town of Warrenton, North Carolina. After earning his M.D. from George Washington University in 1905, Christmas practiced medicine for just a few years before devoting... Continue Reading →
March 12, 1908 The first public demonstration of a powered aircraft flight in the United States took place near the village of Hammondsport, New York. “First Public Trip of Heavier-than-air Car in America,” announced a headline in the next day’s edition of the Washington Post. The aircraft used for that pioneering flight was the Red Wing. This... Continue Reading →
August 2, 1889 Charles Terres Weymann, who earned international fame for his achievements involving two modes of transportation, was born in Haiti’s capital city of Port-au-Prince. He was the son of a Haitian mother and American father. Just a few years after the Wright Brothers’ pioneering flight at Kitty Hawk, Weymann learned how to operate... Continue Reading →
November 14, 1930 The first flight of the prototype of the H.P.42 biplane airliners took place in the skies above Radlett Aerodrome, an airfield located in Hertfordshire County in southern England. This four-engine, 40-passenger plane, which was designed and manufactured by the British aviation company Handley Page, would achieve renown for several years as one... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 