Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
September 11, 2001 The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 individuals in the vicinity of the World Trade Center in the southernmost part of New York City’s borough of Manhattan; the Pentagon in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area; and – where a hijacked... Continue Reading →
August 22, 1889 A screw-pile superstructure that had been built at the Baltimore-based Lazaretto Depot, a supplies facility for lighthouses and lightvessels, began an overnight journey to the site in Virginia where that superstructure would be installed as the major part of a new lighthouse. The specific destination was at the mouth of the Great... Continue Reading →
June 15, 1962 A newly built lighthouse on Sullivan’s Island, located at the northern entrance to Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, was first lit. “It’s unique among the hundreds of lighthouses in the nation in that its tower is triangular; the better to withstand hurricane winds that periodically pound the coast,” asserted an Associated Press... Continue Reading →
Mara Huling Langevin made history as the first Asian American female -- as well as the first female of any minority -- to become a U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) aviator. “I never thought about being the first of anything,” she said in a 2021 interview with the USCG’s news service MyCG. “All I wanted to... Continue Reading →
March 22, 1937 USCGC Chelan, a U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) cutter under the command of Captain Lyndon Spencer, was among the vessels to respond to distress calls from the Norwegian steamship SS Bjerkli in the North Atlantic. Bjerkli, stranded 660 nautical miles (1,220 kilometers) east of Boston, was being pounded by an 80-mile (128.8-kilometer) gale.... Continue Reading →
Annie Belle Andrews, who was born in 1959, has served as a high-level and even trailblazing leader in both military and civilian capacities. She highlighted her approach to leadership in 2016 when she addressed the graduating class of the Women’s College of Brenau University of Georgia. “Not only as women do you have a voice... Continue Reading →
February 16, 1979 In the Great Lakes region, a lake freighter (also known as a laker) made her first voyage. This was the first voyage of that type of vessel in mid-winter, and it took place on the mostly ice-covered waters of both Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. This lake freighter was constructed by Bay... Continue Reading →
During World War II, Nellie Locust played a groundbreaking role as one of several Native American women from Oklahoma to serve in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Women’s Reserve. USCG Women’s Reserve, also known as the SPARS (the acronym for “Semper Paratus – Always Ready”), was established in 1942 as the women’s branch of the... Continue Reading →
August 30, 1890 The U.S. Congress appropriated $75,000 for the construction of a vessel for the U.S. Lighthouse Board. This vessel was Amaranth, and she would serve for more than a half-century throughout much of the Great Lakes region as a lighthouse tender. Lighthouse tenders provide various kinds of support to the individuals serving at... Continue Reading →
In 1968, Juan T. Salas became the first Chamorro to graduate from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) in New London, Connecticut. The Chamorros are indigenous Pacific Islanders from the Mariana Archipelago. Salas grew up in the village of Piti on the western coast of Guam, a U.S. territory that is the largest and southernmost... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 