A story about the passage of 37 years since a sudden, life-shattering tragedy hit San Diego came up in my Delmarva Newsfeed yesterday. On Friday, September 25, 1978, a beautiful, sunny southern California Day, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Fight 182 was on final descent into the airport when it collided with a Cessna. Thirteen seconds…
Category: Community Studies
Program on Business History Looks to Past to Consider Present and Future
In a lively, interactive program the Cecil County Public Library examines the history of business and economic development in the county. Historian Mike Dixon leads this discussion, as we look back through the centuries to consider the intersection of the past with the present and the future. The free program takes place Wednesday, October 21,…
Historical Research into a Railroad Disaster: Greenwood, Delaware
Recently I have been researching a deadly Delaware tragedy that spurred a vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad to push for national safety transportation regulations. Following several accidents involving powerful explosives, including a catastrophic one in Greenwood, DE, the Bureau of Explosives was created under the American Railway Association. The Sussex County disaster occurred over…
Bringing Communities Together to Remember Tragedies: Southern Flight 242 in New Hope, Ga & Pan Am Flight 214 in Elkton, MD
This afternoon while driving home from the University of Delaware during a heavy downpour, I listened to Transom, a new public media show. The broadcast, “Southern Flight 242: Bringing My Father Home” by Will Coley, was the piece that had me attentively listening as the rain came down. In it, an audio documentarian digs deeply…