Taking off Travel blog

What happened on this day in history? As it turns out, May 9th was a significant day for travel – and a few other things happened too.

Travel Events

1502- Christopher Columbus left Spain to begin his 4th and final trip to the New World.

1836 – Charles Darwin left Mauritius on the HMS Beagle.

1874 – the first horse drawn bus debuted in Mumbai, India. It had two routes.

1870 – London’s Victoria Embankment opened.

1882- The Telegraph Hill Railroad Company was formed.

1896 – London’s first auto (horseless carriage) show took place with 10 models.

Sitting in a "horseless carriage" at the first New York Auto Show in 1900.

1904 – The City of Truro steam locomotive set a record by becoming the first steam engine to go above 100mph

1926 – Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett made the first plane flight over the North Pole. However, many later claimed that they missed it.

2010 – A volcanic ash cloud in Iceland caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

Other Events

1901 – Australia’s first Parliament opened in Melbourne.

1914 – President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed that the second Sunday in May would be Mother’s Day

1955 – West Germany joined NATO.

1960 – the US becomes the first country in the world to approve the use of the birth control pill

1974 – Hearings about considering impeachment for President Nixon began.

1994 – Nelson Mandela was chosen as South Africa’s first black president.