Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John
Jeffries traveled from Dover, England, to Calais, France,
in a gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English
Channel by air.

Just before reaching the French coast, the two balloonists
were forced to throw nearly everything out of the balloon,
and Blanchard even threw his trousers over the side in a
desperate, but apparently successful, attempt to lighten
the ship.

          
                                                                                   John Jeffries

Postcard photo of the Southern Pacific’s “Sunset Limited” train as it traveled between Los Angeles and San Francisco, c. 1910s.

The Southern Pacific Railroad completed its transcontinental “Sunset Route”
from New Orleans to California, consolidating its dominance over rail traffic
to the Pacific.

One of the most powerful railroad companies of the 19th century, the “Espee”
(as the railroad was often called) originated in an ambitious plan conceived in
1870 by the “Big Four” western railroad barons: Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford and Mark Hopkins. A year earlier, the Big Four’s
western-based Central Pacific had linked up with the eastern-based Union
Pacific in Utah, creating the first transcontinental American railway. With
that finished, the “Big Four” began to look for ways to increase their control
over West Coast shipping, and decided to focus their efforts on extending
the California-based Southern Pacific southward.

Early 20th-century postcard of the “Sunset Express” train passing
through Yuma, Arizona.

Greyhound Lines, Inc., usually shortened to Greyhound, is an
intercity bus common carrier serving over 3,800 destinations
across North America. The company’s first route began in
Hibbing, Minnesota in 1914, and the company adopted the
Greyhound name in 1929.

CAMILLE BOHANNON

During World War II on this day in 1940, German war planes bombed
most of the English town of Coventry when about 500 Luftwaffe
bombers attacked.

Coventry Cathedral in ruins following the German attack.

The ruins of the old Coventry Cathedral today, a visible modern-day
reminder of the Blitz of 1940.

Herman Melville’s novel "Moby Dick" was first published in the U.S.
on this day in 1851. 

Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891)