Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
August 12, 1911 The Chicago International Aviation Meet was formally launched. This eight-day air show, which was characterized by the Indiana-based Logansport Journal as “the greatest aggregation of human birds ever assembled,” took place in the section of Grant Park that is along Lake Michigan. The event was held under the aegis of the International Aviation... Continue Reading →
July 1, 1872 Transportation pioneer Louis Blériot was born in the city of Cambrai in northern France. He studied engineering at École Centrale (now part of CentraleSupélec) in Paris. Automobiles became the first means of transportation in which Blériot became actively involved. He developed the world’s first practical headlamps for these vehicles by using a... Continue Reading →
April 2, 1870 Henry de La Vaulx, a balloonist and overall proponent of human aviation, was born in the commune of Bierville in northern France. His airborne accomplishments included setting a long-distance flight record in 1900 when he and a companion traveled approximately 1,200 miles (1,931.2 kilometers) in just under 36 hours in a balloon... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
Transportation History 