Category Archives: Transportation

May 14, 1909: Man Swallows Carbolic Acid on Streetcar, Battles Conductor Before Dying

Posted on May 14, 2026 by lmharnisch

May 14, 1909: A man swallows carbolic acid on a streetcar, smashes windows and battles the conductor and motorman before dying. Continue reading →

Posted in 1909, Front Pages, LAPD, Suicide, Transportation | Tagged 1909, rape, Streetcars, Suicide | Leave a comment

May 13, 1908: Work to Begin on Streetcar Tunnel to Ease Traffic

Posted on May 13, 2026 by lmharnisch

May 13, 1908: Work will begin on a Hill Street tunnel for streetcars in an attempt to ease traffic congestion, showing that traffic problems in Los Angeles are more than a century old. Continue reading →

Posted in 1908, Streetcars, Transportation, Uncategorized | Tagged 1908, downtown, Streetcars, transportation | Leave a comment

May 12, 1907: History Deals a Deadly Hand

Posted on May 12, 2026 by lmharnisch

May 12, 1907: A train wreck north of Point Conception kills more than 30 people heading home from the Shriners convention in Los Angeles. Continue reading →

Posted in 1907, African Americans, Transportation | Tagged #trains, 1907, Shriners, train wrecks, transportation | Leave a comment

Union Station Opens in Los Angeles, May 1939

Posted on May 5, 2026 by lmharnisch

May 1939: Los Angeles didn’t get a Union Station without a fight. First proposed in 1907, a unified depot was bitterly opposed by the railroads for decades. Continue reading →

Posted in 1939, Downtown, Nuestro Pueblo, Transportation | Tagged #Chinatown, #Union Station, 1939, downtown, railroads, transportation | Comments Off

May 5, 1939: Union Station Opens

Posted on May 5, 2026 by lmharnisch

A look back at the history of Union Station, including the railroads’ opposition to sharing a depot. Continue reading →

Posted in 1939, Architecture, Transportation | Comments Off

April 30, 1939: Los Angeles Prepares for Opening of Union Station

Posted on April 30, 2026 by lmharnisch

April 30, 1939: Los Angeles prepares for the opening of Union Station. Continue reading →

Posted in 1939, Comics, Countdown to Watts, Downtown, Music, Transportation | Comments Off

April 20, 1959: It’s a Woman’s World — Auto Mechanic

Posted on April 20, 2026 by lmharnisch

April 20, 1959: Meet Mrs. Roy Harper, a trained auto mechanic who helps run her husband’s auto garage, where she is apparently a service writer and specializes in carburetors. But the Los Angeles Times assures readers that she’s still ladylike and prefers “high heels and chic clothes” to dirty coveralls and tools in the hip pockets. Continue reading →

Posted in 1959, Freeways, Transportation | Comments Off

April 20, 1908: Great White Fleet Draws Huge Crowds, Overwhelming Capacity

Posted on April 20, 2026 by lmharnisch

April 20, 1908: The Great White Fleet draws huge crowds, overwhelming rail service to Long Beach, San Pedro, Redondo Beach and Venice. If there were a Militant Angeleno in 1908, he would have been there! Continue reading →

Posted in 1908, Long Beach, Transportation | Comments Off

April 13, 1908: Dr. Hoffman’s Nerve Syrup Cures ‘Fits’

Posted on April 13, 2026 by lmharnisch

April 13, 1908: Dr. Hoffman’s “Nerve Syrup” has a pleasant taste and cures epilepsy, St. Vitus Dance and nervous trouble. What exactly is in it? The ad isn’t saying. Continue reading →

Posted in 1908, Front Pages, health, Science, Transportation, UFOs | Tagged 1908, transportation | Comments Off

April 2, 1908: Great White Fleet Out of Tunes, Seeks Songs in the Key of Sea

Posted on April 2, 2026 by lmharnisch

April 2, 1908: Sailors of the Great White Fleet are tired of the same old songs and want something new to sing, maybe “I’m Afraid to Go Home in the Dark.” Continue reading →

Posted in #courts, 1908, City Hall, Downtown, Front Pages, Music, Transportation | Tagged #employment, 1908, transportation | Comments Off

March 31, 1908: Traveling Blacksmith Shoes Fire Department Horses

Posted on March 31, 2026 by lmharnisch

March 31, 1908: A traveling blacksmith shoes the Fire Department’s horses, rather than taking the horses to the farrier. The last fire horse, Blackie, retired in 1923 and spent the rest of his life at Griffith Park, where he died in 1939. Continue reading →

Posted in 1908, Animals, Transportation | Tagged 1908, Fire Department, horses | Comments Off

March 4, 1907: L.A. Streetcars — Another Look

Posted on March 4, 2026 by lmharnisch

March 4, 1907: Despite its saintly image, the Los Angeles streetcar system was problematic, as shown by a 1907 accident in San Pedro in which the car jumped the tracks, injuring 10 people. Continue reading →

Posted in 1907, Streetcars, Transportation | Tagged 1907, San Pedro, Streetcars, transportation | Comments Off

February 18, 1908

Posted on February 18, 2026 by lmharnisch

February 18, 1908: A woman falsely claims to be a famous author, and a man has delusions of great wealth. Continue reading →

Posted in #courts, 1908, Front Pages, Transportation | Comments Off

February 11, 1958: As L.A. Grows, Segregation Takes New Forms, Black Official Says

Posted on February 11, 2026 by lmharnisch

February 11, 1958: New patterns of segregation may be forming in L.A., the head of the National Council of Negro Women says. Continue reading →

Posted in Countdown to Watts, Front Pages, Politics, Transportation | Tagged 1958, Cold War, Eisenhower, Mideast | Comments Off

February 11, 1907: Woman Fractures Skull Leaping From Streetcar That Passed Her Stop

Posted on February 11, 2026 by lmharnisch

February 11, 1907: Mrs. A.C. Newton of Central Avenue is near death after fracturing her skull by leaping from a streetcar that passed her stop. News reports show someone was injured almost every week by jumping from a streetcar that failed to stop. Image shows a new Baptist church at 2nd Street and St. Louis. Continue reading →

Posted in 1907, Black Dahlia, Books and Authors, LAPD, Streetcars, Transportation | Comments Off

February 5, 2009: Burbank Time Capsule Revisited

Posted on February 5, 2026 by lmharnisch

February 5, 2009: Burbank opens its 1959 time capsule to discover black and white photos of the city as it was then, plus local newspapers. Continue reading →

Posted in @news, Architecture, City Hall, Education, Environment, Film, Freeways, Real Estate, San Fernando Valley, Science, Transportation | Comments Off

February 5, 2009: Burbank to Open Time Capsule!

Posted on February 5, 2026 by lmharnisch

February 5, 2009: One of my favorite stories from 2009 was discovering that Burbank forgot about a time capsule placed in the Magnolia Boulevard bridge in 1959, to be opened February 5, 2009. Continue reading →

Posted in San Fernando Valley, Science, Transportation | Comments Off

February 3, 1959: Rock Stars Die in Plane Crash

Posted on February 3, 2026 by lmharnisch

February 3, 1958: Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens are killed in a plane crash. Continue reading →

Posted in broadcasting, Film, Hollywood, Music, Obituaries, Rock 'n' Roll, San Fernando Valley, Television, Transportation | Comments Off

January 31, 1959: Matt Weinstock

Posted on January 31, 2026 by lmharnisch

January 31, 1959: Bill Thomas, then a staffer on the Mirror, is assigned to write about American Airlines’ first jet flight to New York. His colleagues buy a life insurance policy. “As the plane goes down it should be comforting to know you are doing a nice thing for your friends,” they say. Continue reading →

Posted in 1959, Columnists, Matt Weinstock, Transportation | Comments Off

January 23, 1958: Matt Weinstock

Posted on January 23, 2026 by lmharnisch

January 23, 1958: The way one writer analyzes the present situation, the public’s appetite for gossip and scandal, whetted by Confidential, is now being satisfied by the so-called conservative magazines. Editors insist writers get full confessions, regardless of whose privacy is invaded, or no sale. Continue reading →

Posted in Columnists, Matt Weinstock, Transportation, UFOs | Tagged 1958, Confidential magazine, Donald Keyhoe, labor, Matt Weinstock, strikes, UFOs | Comments Off