Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Eastern Airlines began its Eastern Airlines Shuttle service between LaGuardia Airport in New York and Washington, DC, and Boston. Initially, the service provided flights on Lockheed 1049 Super Constellation aircraft every two hours from 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. However, this soon proved to be inadequate to passenger demand, so the hours were extended to... Continue Reading →
The USS Tullibee, the smallest nuclear-powered attack submarine in the US fleet was launched in Groton, Connecticut. Small, in this case, is relative: Tullibee was 273 feet (83.2m) long and displaced 2300 tons at the surface. In comparison, the other notable nuclear-powered sub of the time, the USS Nautilus, was 320 feet (97.5m) and displaced... Continue Reading →
The first commercially successful container ship took its maiden voyage on a route from New Jersey to Texas. The Ideal X started life as a World War II T-2 oil tanker named Potrero Hills. Built by the Marinship Corporation in the early 1940s as part of its fleet of 93 ships constructed during that time,... Continue Reading →
The first streetcars in Chicago went into service. These streetcars, running on State Street between Randolph and 12th Streets in the city, were each pulled along by a single horse at about three miles (4.8 kilometers) per hour. In addition, the streetcars measured 12 feet (3.7 meters) in length and could carry up to 18... Continue Reading →
Two enterprising brothers named Orville and Wilbur Wright began selling an innovative type of bicycle they had developed at their shop at 22 South Williams Street in Dayton, Ohio. The brothers named their new bicycle the “Van Cleve.” The Van Cleves, who were ancestors of the Wright family, had been among the first white settlers... Continue Reading →
About five months after being launched, the Red Star Line steamship SS Zeeland completed her maiden voyage. The British-flagged ocean liner had departed the Belgian city of Antwerp on April 13, 1901. After being delayed by a thick fog, Zeeland made her way into New York City’s harbor on April 23. Zeeland was built specifically... Continue Reading →
The Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, made history during the first day of battle in the American War of Independence. This structure, immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as “the rude bridge that arched the flood,” marked the location where colonial minutemen and others serving alongside them fought British light infantry companies that had come... Continue Reading →
The salvage tugboat Abeille Bourbon was launched at the city of Brest on the western edge of France. Abeille Bourbon is owned by Les Abeilles International, a unit of the shipping company Groupe Bourbon, and was chartered to the French Navy for use as a deep-sea emergency tow vessel. The yacht-like Abeille Bourbon was designed... Continue Reading →
On the southwestern coast of present-day South Africa, a new lighthouse began operations near the city of Cape Town. (At the time of the lighthouse’s debut, this region was a part of the British colony known as the Cape Colony.) While built at Mouille Point, the lighthouse was formally named after the local community of... Continue Reading →
Frank N. Piasecki, an engineer, made the second successful U.S. helicopter flight. In 1940, he helped form the P-V Engineering Forum to build and improve upon Igor Sikorsky’s pioneering helicopter flight over American soil the previous year. Piasecki’s company, however, was strapped for cash. He and his engineering team ended up becoming expert scroungers, searching... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 