Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
In 1911, Nan Aspinwall made history as the first woman to successfully complete a solo transcontinental trip by horse. She covered a total of 4,496 miles (7,235.6 kilometers), arriving in New York City 180 days after setting out from San Francisco on her thoroughbred mare Lady Ellen. Aspinwall, who had been born in 1880, established... Continue Reading →
March 12, 1941 The car ferry S.S. City of Midland 41 made her maiden voyage along Lake Michigan between Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and Ludington, Michigan. (The ferry’s namesake was the city of Midland in central Michigan.) The all-steel vessel, which had been launched the previous September, was constructed by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company for the Pere Marquette Railway’s... Continue Reading →
Maritime transportation entrepreneur Thea Foss was born in the hamlet of Eidsberg in Norway in 1857. She immigrated to the United States in the early 1880s. Not long after arriving in her new homeland, she married fellow Norwegian immigrant Andreas Oleson in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (The couple subsequently changed their last name to Fossen to distinguish themselves... Continue Reading →
Canadian aviation pioneer Lorna de Blicquy was born in 1931 near the town of Goderich in the province of Ontario. De Blicquy, who developed a strong interest in aviation after a cousin took her for a flight over the Canadian capital of Ottawa, started to take flying lessons when she was only 14. At the... Continue Reading →
March 7, 1877 The first train of the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad began operations on a 14-mile (22.5-kilometer)-long stretch between the city of Seattle and town (present-day city) of Renton in what was then the Territory of Washington. (This territory became a state more than 11 years later.) The San Francisco Chronicle reported, “Excursion... Continue Reading →
In 1896, a book entitled The Common Sense of Bicycling: Bicycling for Ladies was published by Brentano’s, Inc. The book’s author was New York resident Maria E. Ward, a dedicated bicyclist and active member of the Staten Island Bicycle Club. At a time when bicycling had become a favorite activity throughout the United States, there... Continue Reading →
March 5, 1923 Aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky established the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation on Long Island, thereby opening a new and significant chapter in aircraft development. Igor Sikorsky immigrated to the United States from his native Russia in 1919 with comparatively little money and no job, but a strong interest and ability when it came... Continue Reading →
Janet Guthrie, who blazed new trails for women as a professional race car driver, was born in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1938. Initially, her transportation-oriented aspirations were focused on airborne travel. Guthrie earned a pilot’s license when she was only 17. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she worked for several years as a... Continue Reading →
February 28, 1995 Denver International Airport, which is located approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the downtown section of Colorado’s state capital, officially opened for business. This facility debuted the day after its predecessor, Stapleton International Airport in the northeastern part of Denver, ceased operations after more than 65 years of service. The inaugural festivities... Continue Reading →
African-American publisher Robert Sengstacke Abbott, who was born in Georgia in 1870, creatively utilized a coast-to-coast rail transportation network to disseminate and popularize his newspaper The Chicago Defender. The son of one-time slaves, Abbott launched the newspaper in the Windy City in 1905. The Chicago Defender, focusing on African-Americans and the civil rights challenges that... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 