Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
November 28, 1889 In one of the more noteworthy operations of its kind in the Great Lakes region, the crew of the U.S. Life-Saving Service (USLSS) station at Evanston, Illinois, rescued all of those on board the stranded and storm-battered steamship Calumet on Lake Michigan. While traveling from Buffalo the previous day to deliver coal... Continue Reading →
November 27, 1975 Automotive engineer Alberto Massimino died in the city of Modena in northeast Italy at the age of 80. Massimino, who was born in Turin in 1895, developed a strong interest in mechanics at an early age. Massimino earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical Institute at Fribourg in Switzerland. He... Continue Reading →
Joseph J. Clark was a Native American pioneer in the U.S. Navy. He saw duty in three wars and steadily rose through the ranks of the Navy to become an admiral. Clark was born in 1893 in the town of Pryor Creek (now the city of Pryor) in present-day Oklahoma. At the time, that section... Continue Reading →
November 26, 1902 The Skreia Line, a railway line in eastern Norway, made its debut. Measuring a little over 13 miles (20.9 kilometers) in length, this single-track rail was a branch line from the GjøvikLine. The Skreia Line specifically ran between the villages of Reinsvoll and Skreia in the district of Toten. Paul Due One... Continue Reading →
November 21, 1964 In New York City, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was officially opened to traffic in a dedication ceremony attended by approximately 5,000 people. United Press International reported, “A brilliant sun shone on the 4,200-foot [1,280.7-meter] suspension span and a cold wind blew across the lower bay of the harbor as a pair of polished scissors... Continue Reading →
November 20, 1990 The final 14.5-mile (23.3-kilometer) section of Interstate 15 was opened to traffic near the city of Tremonton, Utah. The opening of this link of I-15 created a continuous interstate highway of about 1,430 miles (2,301.4 kilometers) between the community of Sweetgrass, Montana, at the U.S. boundary with Canada and San Diego, California... Continue Reading →
Mary Golda Ross was the first known Native American female engineer. She was born in the Oklahoma community of Park Hill in 1908. One of her great-grandfathers was John Ross, a longtime and widely renowned chief of the Cherokee Nation who helped guide his people through such tumultuous experiences as the Civil War and the... Continue Reading →
November 19, 1993 At Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, then-Federal Highway Administrator (and later U.S. Transportation Secretary) Rodney Slater played the key role in a ceremony honoring somebody who had distinguished himself both as a war hero and important good-roads advocate. Roy Stone had served in the Union Army during the Civil War and,... Continue Reading →
The Wampanoag people were a long-established confederacy of several Native American tribes in present-day Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Many of the Wampanoag people are now enrolled in two federally recognized tribes in Massachusetts: the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Tribal Council, based in the town of Mashpee on the southeastern coast of mainland Massachusetts; and the Wampanoag... Continue Reading →
November 16, 1920 Arrival at Longreach of the Armstrong Whitworth FK8 with the first bag of air mail on the inaugural flight of the first Qantas air service from Charleville to Cloncurry, 22 November 1922 The longtime airline Quantas was established as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited at the Gresham Hotel in the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 