Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
October 22, 1925 A technological milestone for locomotives in the United States took place when the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) began using diesel-electric locomotive No. 1000 to switch freight cars at the Bronx Terminal in New York City. This 300-horsepower (304.2-metric horsepower) boxcab – also widely characterized at the time as an oil-electric... Continue Reading →
Since 2024, Dina Contella has served as International Space Station (ISS) deputy program manager at NASA. Her considerable responsibilities, which are handled here on Earth, involve helping with the day-to-day management and overall operations of that habitable satellite and microgravity laboratory. ISS, which resides in low Earth orbit (LEO), has the distinction of being both... Continue Reading →
September 17, 2001 In northeastern England’s ceremonial county of Tyne and Wear, a bridge for pedestrians and cyclists in the city and metropolitan borough of Newscastle upon Tyne (more simply known as Newcastle) was opened to the public. This bridge, crossing the River Tyne, serves as a link between the major arts and cultural center... Continue Reading →
September 1, 2009 Wayne Shackelford, who served for nearly a decade as commissioner of the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), died at what is now known as Piedmont Eastside Medical Center in the city of Snellville in the north-central part of the Peach State. He was 75. Shackelford was born in Carroll County, Georgia, on... Continue Reading →
July 1, 1977 The Blue Line of the Washington Metro first went into service. This line’s inaugural stretch between National Airport station in Arlington County, Virginia, and Stadium-Armory station in southeast Washington, D.C., joined the Red Line (introduced the previous year) in forming what was then the world’s newest major rapid transit system. The Orange... Continue Reading →
June 17, 1892 Two years after construction on it began, the Brienz Rothorn Railway in central Switzerland first went into service. This line connects the municipality of Brienz with the summit of the mountain known as the Brienzer Rothorn (part of the western region of the Alps). The Brienz Rothorn Railway (“Brienz Rothorn Bahn” [BRB]... Continue Reading →
June 10, 1822 A historic “first” in maritime transportation took place when the iron steamship Aaron Manby crossed the English Channel from England to France. While there had been crossings of wooden steamships between those countries by this time, the voyage of the Aaron Manby marked the first such voyage of a steamship built of... Continue Reading →
June 8, 1945 With World War II still underway in the Pacific Theater, the ship Francis J. O’Gara was launched at the shipyard of J.A. Jones Construction Company in Panama City, Florida. This vessel was one of more than 2,700 Liberty ships built in the United States during the war. These standardized cargo vessels were... Continue Reading →
June 5, 2017 The day before it first opened for passengers on a regular basis, a newly built Amtrak train station in the city of Pontiac, Illinois, was inaugurated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and plenty of praise. Approximately 75 people attended this event. The funding for this station was a federal grant provided to the... Continue Reading →
June 4, 1910 Christopher Cockerell, who would achieve fame as the inventor of the hovercraft, was born in the city of Cambridge, England. He studied mechanical engineering at Peterhouse, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Cockerell later pursued studies in both radio and electronics at the University of Cambridge. In 1935, Cockerell began... Continue Reading →
