Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
July 26, 1863 Work began on a lighthouse on the island of Texel, part of the Netherlands’ province of North Holland. Texel is the largest island of the West Frisian Islands, which are within the Wadden Sea (an intertidal zone in the southeastern section of the North Sea). The lighthouse on Texel is specifically located... Continue Reading →
June 21, 1815 Thomas Smith, an engineer who made notable contributions to the illumination of street lights as well as far-flung lighthouses, died at his home at 2 Baxter’s Place in the Scottish city of Edinburgh. He was 62. Smith was born on December 6, 1752, in Broughty Ferry, a suburb of the Scottish city... Continue Reading →
June 15, 1962 A newly built lighthouse on Sullivan’s Island, located at the northern entrance to Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, was first lit. “It’s unique among the hundreds of lighthouses in the nation in that its tower is triangular; the better to withstand hurricane winds that periodically pound the coast,” asserted an Associated Press... Continue Reading →
June 1, 1905 A year after construction on it had begun, a lighthouse on the eastern edge of Middle Island in Lake Huron officially went into service. (Middle Island is about 10 miles [16 kilometers] north of the city of Alpena in Michigan.) The first person to serve as keeper at Middle Island Light was... Continue Reading →
May 30, 1914 The Cunard Line ship RMS Aquitania, in her maiden voyage, left Liverpool, England, for New York. In doing so, Aquitania joined the RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania as Cunard Line’s “grand trio” of express ocean liners providing regular transatlantic service. Aquitania would be nicknamed “Ship Beautiful” due to her reputation as one... Continue Reading →
May 3, 1856 A newly built lighthouse at Jones Point in Alexandria, Virginia, first went into service. Jones Point Light is located along the Potomac River, just north of where that body of water intersects with Hunting Creek. This lighthouse is a rectangular clapboard building with a circular lantern on its pitched cedar roof. Jones... Continue Reading →
On April 8, 1996, a dedication ceremony was held for the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) Employee Memorial near the city of Paxico in the northeastern region of the Sunflower State. This memorial, which is specifically located at the Paxico Safety Rest Area on Interstate 70, commemorates state highway employees who have lost their lives... Continue Reading →
Aviation pioneer Helen Hodge was one of the first American women to earn a pilot’s license. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1892, and received her secondary school education at Brownell Hall (now Brownell-Talbot School) in that city. By 1909, Hodge and her family had moved to Oakland, California. Over time, both Hodge and... Continue Reading →
March 28, 1922 The U.S. Congress formally authorized funds for both the establishment and improvement of navigational aids in Alaska, a longtime territory that would achieve statehood 37 years later. One of the end results of this congressional appropriation was the construction of a replacement lighthouse at Point Retreat, a cape on the northern tip... Continue Reading →
March 21, 1850 Trailblazing bicycle manufacturer Albert H. Overman was born in Fulton County, Illinois. Early on in life, he developed a strong interest in the mechanics of transportation. Overman said in an 1897 interview with the New York-based World newspaper, “I have all my life been engaged in experimental work connected with man-propelled machinery,... Continue Reading →
