Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
A new and trend-setting type of terminal for bus passengers was formally opened in Toa Payoh, a longtime planned community in Singapore’s central region. Toa Payoh Bus Interchange became the permanent replacement for another facility for bus passengers that had been opened in the vicinity in 1983 and demolished in 1999. The terminal accommodates a... Continue Reading →
As a longtime American citizen, Korean-born John M. Chun carved out an enviable niche for himself as an automobile designer. His innovative products ranged from toy cars to actual high-performance automobiles. Chun started out life in present-day North Korea in 1928. He moved to South Korea in 1953 after active fighting in the Korean War... Continue Reading →
Polish aviation pioneer Tadeusz Góra made a record-setting flight of 359 miles in a PWS-101 glider (an unpowered aircraft dependent on air currents to stay airborne) between the village of Bezmiechowa Górna in southeastern Poland and the city of Šalčininkai in southeastern Lithuania. As a result of this achievement, Góra became the first-ever recipient of... Continue Reading →
Michael A. Chowdry was a Pakistani-American who combined a strong enthusiasm for flying with his entrepreneurial talents to become a major force in the aviation industry. Chowdry, who was born in Pakistan in 1954, moved to the United States in 1976. He graduated from the University of Minnesota Crookston in 1978 with a degree in... Continue Reading →
David Animle Hansen, who played a pioneering role in the development of the Ghana Navy, was born in the city of Accra. At the time, Accra and the remainder of present-day Ghana were under British rule as the colony of the Gold Coast along West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea. Hansen underwent military training at the... Continue Reading →
In the Austrian Empire, the first segment of a railway to connect the capital city of Vienna with the pivotal Hungarian city of Győr (the halfway point between Vienna and Budapest) was officially opened. This initial section had been constructed between the town of Baden, which is 16 miles south of Vienna, and the Austrian... Continue Reading →
Leah Hing, who was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1907, achieved a historic record in 1934 when she became the first U.S.-born Chinese-American woman to earn her airplane pilot’s license. While the better known Katherine Sui Fun Cheung obtained her own airplane pilot’s license about two years earlier, she had been born in China and... Continue Reading →
Just three days before her 17th birthday, Australian sailor Jessica Watson – arriving in Sydney Harbour at 1:53 p.m. in her boat Ella’s Pink Lady -- completed a solo non-stop circumnavigation of the Southern Hemisphere. A pink carpet was set out for her and, as she walked on it after getting out of the boat,... Continue Reading →
Abdus Suttar Khan was an Asian American scientist and aerospace researcher who made significant contributions to several modes of transportation. Khan was born in 1941 in Khagatua village in modern-day Bangladesh (at the time part of British India). He graduated from the University of Dhaka in his homeland with a master’s degree in chemistry in... Continue Reading →
Professional racing cyclist Lee Wai Sze, who also goes by the name of Sarah Lee, was born in the urban area of Kowloon in Hong Kong. Despite being born with anemia, Lee participated in and excelled in athletics at an early age. She eventually developed a strong interest in cycling, and started pursuing that sport on a... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 