Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Inoue Masaru, who became known as the Father of the Japanese Railways for his contributions to transit services, was born in the city of Hagi on Japan’s main island of Honshu. In 1863, Inoue – along with four other students from the region of Honshu that was then known as the Chōshū Domain (a feudal... Continue Reading →
Luis Piedrabuena, who became a maritime legend, was born in the Argentine port city of Carmen de Patagones. He developed a deep interest in the sea at an early age, and three mariners each played a key role in encouraging that interest. One of these men was Welsh-born Captain James Harris, a family friend, and... Continue Reading →
A new lighthouse made its formal debut in Western Australia. Woodman Point Lighthouse (originally called Gage Roads Lighthouse), which is located on Woodman Point in the City of Cockburn, was built to help safely guide vessels sailing into the area’s large and busy port of Fremantle Harbour. “The light will be visible from the bridge... Continue Reading →
The Tjeldsund Bridge in northern Norway made its debut. The 3,304-foot-long suspension road bridge, which has 32 spans altogether, crosses the Tjeldsundet strait between the municipalities of Skånland on the mainland and Harstad on the island of Hinnøya. The Tjeldsund Bridge took 30 months to build, with 112,000 bags of cement and 1,200 tons of... Continue Reading →
Automobile manufacturer Ettore Arco Isidoro Bugatti died at age of 65 in the French commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine in the Paris region. Bugatti had been born in Milan, Italy, in 1881. At a young age, Bugatti demonstrated a strong aptitude when it came to constructing motor vehicles. He was only 17, for example, when he built... Continue Reading →
A new railway bridge, crossing the Rhine between the city of Waldshut (present-day Waldshut-Tiengen) in the Kingdom of Württemberg (now part of southwestern Germany) and the community of Koblenz in northern Switzerland, was officially opened. The Waldshut-Koblenz Rhine Bridge, which was built to carry the Turgi-Koblenz-Waldshut Railway over one of Europe’s major rivers, had the... Continue Reading →
Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, who established himself as one of Argentina’s most celebrated racing car drivers, was born in the Buenos Aires suburb of Caballito. In 1934, Gálvez’s interest in automobiles led him to buy a Model T Ford with money that he earned while working in his father’s engineering workshop. Another and arguably even bigger... Continue Reading →
Bicycle pioneer Henri Desgrange died in the commune of Beauvallon in southeastern France at the age of 75. Desgrange had been born into a middle-class family in Paris in 1865. Early on in his working life, he served as a clerk in one of the city’s law firms. Desgrange also developed a strong enthusiasm for... Continue Reading →
The first passenger railway train in eastern India (at the time under the rule of the British East India Company) steamed out of the present-day city of Howrah at 8:30 a.m. for the city of Hooghly. The trip took a total of 91 minutes. This segment of the East Indian Railway Company – ultimately known... Continue Reading →
Aviation pioneer, Gustave Whitehead, may or may not have flown a powered aircraft two years before the Wright Brothers. Whitehead (or Weisskopf in his native German) emigrated to the US in the late 1800s, after a troubled childhood in Bavaria. He was trained as a mechanic and then forcibly ganged onto a ship in Hamburg... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 