Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
February 12, 1961 Charles Richelieu McMillan, who shepherded major changes to roads throughout South Carolina during his tenure as the Palmetto State’s chief highway commissioner, died in the state capital city of Columbia after a long illness. He was 61. The South Carolina-based Florence Morning News praised McMillan at the time of his death as... Continue Reading →
February 11, 1888 Construction began on a new terminal building for Sirkeci railway station in the city of Constantinople (now known as Istanbul) in the present-day Republic of Turkey. (At the time, Turkey was part of the Ottoman Empire; Constantinople served as the empire’s capital.) With Constantinople straddling the Bosporus strait between Europe and Asia,... Continue Reading →
February 10, 1953 Narisimha Gopalaswami Ayyangar, who played a pivotal role in modernizing and improving India’s railway network, died in the city of Madras (present-day Chennai) in southern India at the age of 70. Ayyangar had been born in the region in 1882. His longtime public service career started in 1905; the first of those... Continue Reading →
February 6, 1872 Civil engineer Robert Maillart was born in Bern, Switzerland. Maillart left a lasting imprint on his profession through his aesthetical approach to bridge construction and his innovative use of structural reinforced concrete for that purpose. Two prominent examples of Maillart’s work are the Salginatobel and Schwandbach Bridges that he designed and built. The Salginatobel... Continue Reading →
February 5, 2016 In Delaware, a groundbreaking ceremony took place for a highway project to help reduce congestion and strengthen commerce along a significant portion of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. The focus of this project was on building a new version of U.S. Route 301 (US 301) in Delaware. This new 13-mile... Continue Reading →
February 4, 1961 William George Toop Goodman, who made significant contributions to public transit in both Australia and New Zealand, died in the city of College Park in the state of South Australia (SA) at the age of 88. Goodman had been born in southeastern England in 1872. After studying at educational institutions such as... Continue Reading →
February 3, 1991 In Albania, the Directory General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was established in the country’s capital city of Tirana. DGCA, which is now known as the Albanian Civil Aviation Authority (AAC), was put into place to monitor and manage Albania’s dramatic growth in air traffic at a time when the country was starting... Continue Reading →
January 31, 1980 A new international airport officially began operations in the south-central area of El Salvador. This facility – originally called Cuscatlan International Airport – is located in the municipality of San Luis Salvador, which is about 26 miles (42 kilometers) from the country’s capital city of San Salvador. The first flight for the... Continue Reading →
January 30, 2017 The extensive sea trials for the Indian Navy sailing vessel (INSV) Tarini were successfully completed. INSV Tarini, which had been built at Aquarius Shipyard in southwestern India’s state of Goa, was only the second ocean-going sailboat to become part of the Indian Navy. (ISNV Mhadei, the first of these sailboats, had been... Continue Reading →
January 29, 2018 As a key part of a major reconstruction project in the city of Portsmouth, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) closed the Stark Street Bridge to all vehicular and pedestrian traffic. This structure, dating back to the 1940s and crossing over the U.S. Route 1 Bypass (US 1 Byp), was shut... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 