This Day in History on Travel - Page 3 of 15

January 13, 2012: Cruise Ship Costa Concordia Wrecks off Isola del Giglio, 32 Die

By Major Dan on January 13, 2019 January 13, Travel, Vehicles

A Brief History On January 13, 2012, the woes of the cruise lines of the world became as bad as they can get when a giant Italian cruise ship was wrecked off the coast of Isola del Giglio in the Tyrrhenian Sea (part of the Mediterranean Sea to the West of Italy) taking 32 lives in the accident. The ship, Costa Concordia, was operated by a subsidiary of Carnival Cruise Lines called Costa Crociere and had only been in service for 6 years when she was run aground and lost, joining a long list of miserable cruise ship experiences in…

December 29, 1890: 10 Funny or Odd Place Names (How Did They Get Those Names?)

By Major Dan on December 29, 2018 December 29, Lists, Travel

A Brief History On December 29, 1890, the United States Army 7th Cavalry Regiment conducted a massacre of about 200 Native Americans at a place called Wounded Knee in South Dakota, (see our article “Wounded Knee Massacre”). We contend that the name, Wounded Knee, is a bit on the odd side. After all, should other places be named “Headache,” “Sore Butt,” or “Infected Toe Mountain?” Geographical places or formations, whether of a national or local variety have often been named for one reason or another in a way that seems a little odd to us that speak English. (Or is…

December 27, 1966: World’s Largest Cave Discovered in Mexico

By Major Dan on December 27, 2018 December 27, Nature, Travel

A Brief History On December 27, 1966, the largest cave in the world was discovered in Aquismón, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Boasting a single cavern that covers a ground space of 994 feet long by 442 feet wide, the so called Cave of Swallows (alternately called “The Cave of the Swallows”) had been known for many generations by indigenous Huastec people, and was considered “discovered” only when a documented descent into the cave was made by T. R. Evans, Charles Borland and Randy Sterns, the first outsiders known to have visited the cave. Digging Deeper Known as a “pit” type…

December 17, 2003: SpaceShipOne Becomes First Privately Built Supersonic Aircraft

By Major Dan on December 17, 2018 December 17, Inventions, Travel, Vehicles

A Brief History On December 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight of a human piloted aircraft flown by Orville Wright was marked by another aviation first, that being the first supersonic flight by a human piloted aircraft that was built by a private company when SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian Binnie achieved Mach 1.2 in a rocket powered test flight to a lofty altitude of 20,67 kilometers (almost 68,000 feet). SpaceShipOne is a privately developed space plane designed to take passengers into suborbital space flight, space being defined as at an altitude of at least 100 kilometers. …

November 19, 1911: What is the Doom Bar?

By Major Dan on November 19, 2018 Nature, November 19, Travel, Vehicles

A Brief History On November 19, 1911, the infamous “Doom Bar” located at the mouth of the River Camel in Cornwall, England where it empties into the Celtic Sea claimed another pair of ships, sinking both. The Island Maid and Angele both had run aground on the permanent sandbar, formerly known as the less poetic “Dunbar sands,” killing everyone aboard the Angele except, oddly enough, the captain. As can be expected by the demonstrative name, the Doom Bar is infamous for causing the sinking or grounding of many ships over the years. The River Camel estuary serves as access to…