Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Victoria Sheehan, who has served as commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation since October 2015, was elected president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) in October 2020. Sheehan is the second woman to serve as president of AASHTO in its 107-year history. AASHTO’s first female president was Susan... Continue Reading →
December 29, 1959 The first metro system in Portugal was inaugurated in the country’s capital city of Lisbon. Américo Tomás, who served as Portugal’s president from 1958 to 1974, officiated at the dedication ceremony for the initial 3.1-mile (5-kilometer) segment of this pioneering rapid transit service. At six o’clock the next morning, the Lisbon Metro... Continue Reading →
December 7, 1891 A rail tunnel that had been built underneath the St. Clair River as a new transportation route between Canada and the United States was opened to passengers. This tunnel was specifically constructed to connect the town (now city) of Sarnia in the Canadian province of Ontario with the city of Port Huron... Continue Reading →
November 24, 2007 The Lynx Blue Line first went into service in Charlotte, North Carolina. This light rail line, which is owned and operated by the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS), made history as the first major rapid rail service in the Tar Heel State. On the day of Lynx’s formal debut, CATS allowed all... Continue Reading →
October 16, 1908 An American made what is officially recognized as the first controlled, powered, and sustained heavier-than-air flight in the United Kingdom. Samuel Franklin (S.F.) Cody achieved this milestone when he piloted British Army Aeroplane No. 1, which he designed and built, off the ground in the town of Farnborough in southeastern England. Cody... Continue Reading →
In 1991, U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG) Katherine Faverey Tiongson took command of the newly built USCG cutter (USCGC) Bainbridge Island. This assignment made Tiongson the first Hispanic American female to command an afloat unit in the USCG. Tiongson took command of the 110-foot (34-meter) USCGC Bainbridge Island during a commissioning ceremony... Continue Reading →
October 14, 1890 President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as the 34th U.S. president between 1953 and 1961, was born in Denison, Texas. One of the defining moments of his presidency was when he signed into law the landmark Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 that made the Interstate System a reality. The provisions in Title... Continue Reading →
October 9, 1834 In a trial run, the steam locomotive Hibernia pulled a train consisting of eight carriages on the newly built Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR) line in Ireland. (At that time, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged together as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; this sovereign state remained in... Continue Reading →
September 24, 1929 U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) Lieutenant James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, who would achieve lasting fame as commander of the Doolittle Raid during World War II, made his most significant contribution to aeronautical technology when he guided a Consolidated N-Y-2 Husky training biplane over Mitchel Field in New York in what was the... Continue Reading →
September 18, 1831 Automotive pioneer Siegfried Samuel Marcus was born in the town of Malchin in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, which is now part of the Federal Republic of Germany. By the mid-1850s, Marcus had moved to Vienna and worked in that city as a manufacturer of scientific instruments until his death in 1898.... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 