Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
1942: A Pivotal Milestone for Dodge Trucks Used Extensively as Ambulances During World War II October 23, 1942 Nearly eleven months after the United States entered World War II, the U.S. Army adopted a standardized design for the trucks that served as the main field ambulances for the Allies for the remainder of that global... Continue Reading →
Elio Morillo, an aerospace engineer, was born in Ecuador. His interest in becoming an engineer took shape after he and his mother immigrated to New York City. Morillo found himself especially mesmerized in his younger years by TV footage of jets, spacecraft, and other types of flight technology. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in mechanical... Continue Reading →
August 20, 1908 A first-of-a-kind automobile journey in Australia came to a successful end when a trio traveling in a Talbot car arrived in the city of Darwin in the Northern Territory. The three men completing this long-distance trip, which that had begun in the city of Adelaide in South Australia, were Henry Hampden Dutton... Continue Reading →
November 25, 1949 The one-millionth Cadillac rolled off the production line a little more than 47 years after the first model of this automobile was built. The one-millionth Cadillac was a Coupe de Ville. This automotive milestone was officially announced by John F. Gordon (1900-1978), general manager of General Motors’ Cadillac motor car division. In making... Continue Reading →
July 12, 1916 William Warwick, accompanied by his wife and their young daughter, departed from Seattle in a commercial truck for what would become the first transcontinental journey for that type of motor vehicle in the United States. This pioneering expedition between Seattle and New York City took place under the auspices of the Seattle... Continue Reading →
Swati Mohan is an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a research and development center that is based in Pasadena, California, and managed by the California Institute of Technology. Since 2013, she has been significantly involved in the Mars 2020 mission. A large part of this mission has entailed dispatching both the rover... Continue Reading →
April 3, 1996 The British sports car Jaguar E-Type, which achieved worldwide renown when it was manufactured by Jaguar Cars Ltd. between 1961 and 1974, made another cultural breakthrough by becoming only the third automobile placed on permanent exhibit at the New York City Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Christopher Mount, assistant curator for the... Continue Reading →
March 20, 1905 A three-hinged steel through arch bridge, crossing the Connecticut River and linking the Vermont village of Bellows Falls with the New Hampshire community of North Walpole, was formally opened. Measuring 644 feet and eight inches (196.5 meters) in length, the Bellow Falls Arch Bridge had been designed by Boston civil engineer J.R.... Continue Reading →
November 18, 1885 In the Kingdom of Württemberg (at the time a state of the German Empire and now part of the Federal Republic of Germany), 17-year-old Paul Daimler undertook the first trial run of what is widely regarded as the world’s first motorcycle. His father Gottlieb Daimler, along with Wilhelm Maybach, built the vehicle in... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 