Destined to become one of the state’s major exports, the first
trainload of oranges grown by Southern California farmers left
Los Angeles via refrigerator cars of the transcontinental railroad.

PORTLAND, Ore. — TriMet is honoring civil rights activist Rosa
Parks on Friday, February 4 on what would have been her 109th
birthday.

Officials said no fares will be collected for bus, MAX, WES or LIFT.

Portland Streetcar and C-TRAN will also provide free rides as an
annual tribute to Rosa Parks.

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks
(February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005)

Suez Canal inauguration oil Painting with Ottoman Turkish, Egyptian and French Flags.

The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red seas,
was inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony attended by French
Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. 

In 1854, Ferdinand de Lesseps, the former French consul to Cairo, secured an agreement with the Ottoman governor of Egypt to build
a canal 100 miles across the Isthmus of Suez. An international team
of engineers drew up a construction plan, and in 1856 the Suez
Canal Company was formed and granted the right to operate the
canal for 99 years after completion of the work.

Construction began in April 1859, and at first digging was done by
hand with picks and shovels wielded by forced laborers. Later,
European workers with dredgers and steam shovels arrived.

Rare actual photo of the Suez Canal November 16, 1869

On September 10, 1897, a 25-year-old London taxi driver named
George Smith becomes the first person ever arrested for drunk
driving after slamming his cab into a building. He later pleaded
guilty and was fined 25 shillings.

In the United States, the first laws against operating a motor
vehicle while under the influence of alcohol went into effect 
in New York in 1910.

On the morning of July 31, 1975, James Riddle Hoffa, one of the most
influential American labor leaders of the 20th century, was officially
reported missing after he failed to return home the previous night. 

Though he is popularly believed to have been the victim of a Mafia hit,
conclusive evidence was never found and Hoffa’s fate remains a mystery.