Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 14, 1917 Just a little over a month after the United States entered World War I on the side of the Allied Powers, the U.S. Navy acquired the private yacht Sybilla III for use as a section patrol craft in the fight against the Central Powers. On the same day that she was acquired... Continue Reading →
May 4, 1724 In central France, an arch bridge in the present-day prefecture and commune of Blois was formally opened. The structure, which spans the Loire river, was built to replace a stone bridge that dated back to the 11th century and destroyed by massive ice floes in February 1716. Construction on the replacement bridge... Continue Reading →
April 20, 1954 The first of what has become a longtime series of international automobile shows was opened in the plaza at Hibiya Park in Tokyo. Originally called the All-Japan Motor Show, the event was subsequently renamed the Tokyo Motor Show. The inaugural edition of these shows took place a little less than nine years... Continue Reading →
April 17, 1962 A dedication ceremony took place for an airport in the vicinity of Bhubaneswar, the capital city of eastern India’s state of Odisha. This airport was specifically dedicated to the people of Odisha, and it had the distinction of being the first commercial airport in the state. The airport is named after Biju... Continue Reading →
April 16, 2012 Only four days after what would be his last public appearance, Danish shipping magnate Arnold Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller died in Copenhagen at the age of 98. He had been a longtime leader at A.P Møller – Mærsk Group (known simply as Maersk), the shipping and logistics company that his father Arnold Peter... 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 →
March 25, 1940 An open house for the public was held for a recently completed Greyhound bus terminal at 1100 New York Avenue in northwest Washington, D.C. This open house, which was formally classified as a public preview, took place between 4:00 and 9:00 p.m. on the day before the actual start of bus operations... Continue Reading →
March 10, 1906 SS Viper was launched at the shipyard of Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company (widely known as Fairfields) in the Scottish burgh of Govan. (Six years later, Govan was annexed as part of the city of Glasgow.) This steel, triple-screw, turbine-driven was built at Govan by Fairfields for use by the maritime transportation... Continue Reading →
Aviation pioneer Janet Harmon Bragg was born in the city of Griffin, Georgia, on March 24, 2007. She developed a strong interest in flying at a young age. In 1933, Bragg enrolled at Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical University in Chicago. By that time, the university had become an aviation school for blacks that was managed by pilots John C. Robinson (1903-1954)... 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 →
Transportation History 