Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
March 17, 1813 A newly completed lighthouse on Inishtrahull Island, which is about five nautical miles (t0 kilometers) off the coast of County Donegal in Ireland, first went into service. Inishtrahull Lighthouse was designed by renowned civil engineer George Halpini Sr., who had been appointed inspector of lighthouse for the Dublin Ballast Board in 1810.... Continue Reading →
On January 15, 2009, New York Waterway ferry captain and U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) reservist Brittany Catanzaro and her crew played a crucial lifesaving role for the passengers of an Airbus A320 after that plane had made an emergency landing on the Hudson River. This landing was made necessary because the aircraft (US Airways Flight... Continue Reading →
March 7, 1889 Pioneering naval aviator Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1910 and then embarked on a comparatively short-lived but significant aviation career. Chevalier, who would be described in one news account as “one of the navy’s most daring aviators,” took to the... Continue Reading →
February 21, 1900 A newly constructed lighthouse began operations on Somes Island (now officially known as Matiu/Somes Island) in the northern half of Wellington Harbour on the southern tip of New Zealand’s North Island. At the time of this lighthouse’s debut, New Zealand was a British colony; it gained semi-independent status as a dominion of... Continue Reading →
January 31, 1890 Not far from Long Island’s north shore, a lighthouse built on a shoal at the entrance to Cold Spring Harbor was first lit. Construction on Cold Spring Harbor Light had begun the previous year. The first keeper for this lighthouse was William S. Keene, who had been selected from a pool... Continue Reading →
January 21, 1881 On northwestern Oregon’s Pacific coast, Tillamook Rock Light – located about 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometers) offshore from Tillamook Head and 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the mouth of the Columbia River -- was first officially lit at 7:15 p.m. “The signaling is a success,” reported Joel W. Munson, who observed Tillamook... Continue Reading →
January 11, 1815 David Stevenson, who would achieve widespread renown as a civil engineer and lighthouse designer, was born in Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh. By the time of his birth, his father Robert Stevenson (1772-1850) had begun to establish himself as a notable designer of lighthouses within Scotland. (This country officially became part of... Continue Reading →
December 28, 1975 After nearly 96 years of being maintained and operated by resident keepers, a lighthouse off the coast of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) became officially unmanned. This lighthouse is located on South Solitary Island, which is about 9.3 miles (15 kilometers) northeast of the city of Coffs Harbour on... Continue Reading →
December 7, 1941 Without a formal declaration of war or any other explicit warning, the Empire of Japan attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in what was then the Territory of Hawaii. The Japanese Imperial Navy’s surprise strike left in its wake a staggering number of deaths and injuries – both military and... Continue Reading →
November 16, 1860 The first permanent lighthouse on the western coast of Canada made its debut just off Vancouver Island, which was a separate British colony at the time and not yet integrated with British Columbia as a single government unit. Fisgard Lighthouse, located at the narrow entrance to Esquimalt Harbor on the island’s southern... Continue Reading →
