Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
June 19, 2024 Three years after Juneteenth became a federal holiday, a group of 27 black military veterans and their chaperones flew from Atlanta to Washington, D.C. Their trip was hosted by the Honor Flight Network, a non-profit organization that has transported thousands of veterans – many of them elderly and infirm -- to the... Continue Reading →
June 16, 1941 About six months before the United States officially entered World War II on the side of the Allies, the schooner Bowdoin was commissioned into the U.S. Navy. USS Bowdoin (IX-50) became one of this military branch’s few sail-powered vessels at the time. Bowdoin was placed under the command of USNR (U.S. Navy... Continue Reading →
June 8, 1945 With World War II still underway in the Pacific Theater, the ship Francis J. O’Gara was launched at the shipyard of J.A. Jones Construction Company in Panama City, Florida. This vessel was one of more than 2,700 Liberty ships built in the United States during the war. These standardized cargo vessels were... Continue Reading →
In January 2021, Giao Phan became executive director of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). She was the first Asian American woman to serve in this position at the largest and most complex of the U.S. Navy’s five materiel agencies responsible for the design, construction, and maintenance of various military systems. Phan was born in... Continue Reading →
April 10, 1926 The motor yacht Siele launched at the Pusey and Jones Corporation’s shipyard in Wilmington, Delaware. This vessel was designed by naval architect B.T. Dobson and built by Pusey and Jones for Detroit-area resident and banker John H. French (1881-1952). At the time, he was serving as both president of the French Investment... Continue Reading →
In 1978, Jill E. Brown made aviation history as the first African American woman to become a pilot for a major U.S. passenger airline. She was born in Baltimore in 1950. Her family owned a farm in West Virginia and, by the time she was nine, Brown had begun operating a tractor there and performing... Continue Reading →
Gladys West, who made pivotal contributions to the development of the Global Positioning System (GPS), was born on October 27, 1930, in the community of Sutherland, Virginia. After graduating from her high school as valedictorian, West attended Virginia State College (now Virginia State University). She graduated in 1952 with a B.S. in mathematics. West eventually... Continue Reading →
January 21, 1945 In the final year of World War II, a U.S. Navy transport ship was launched in a Sunday ceremony at a Kaiser Shipbuilding yard in Richmond, California. This ship was named after Andre Walker Brewster (1862-1942), a U.S. Army major general and Medal of Honor recipient. Walker’s noteworthy assignments during his long... Continue Reading →
December 23, 1944 A little over three years after the United States entered World War II on the side of the Allies, the U.S. Navy rescue and salvage ship USS Bolster (ARS-38) was launched at a shipyard of the Basalt Rock Company. This company, which was located just south of the San Francisco Bay Area’s... Continue Reading →
December 5, 1931 The luxury ocean liner SS Manhattan, which had been built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, was launched in Camden, New Jersey. Former First Lady Edith Roosevelt (1861-1948), widow of President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), christened the ship with a bottle containing water taken from various streams throughout the country. This United States Lines... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 