This Week in Outdoor History: Roads, Bikes and Boats

Filed in archive Outdoor News on June 24, 2007

This week in outdoor history features the first bike patent, independence for Croatia and Slovenia, and the declassification of Route 66.

June 25, 1991: Croatia and Slovenia proclaimed their independence from Yugoslavia, beginning the Yugoslavian civil war.

June 25, 1997: Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau died.

June 26, 1819: The bicycle was patented by W. K. Clarkson.

June 27, 1898: Joshua Slocum became the first person to successfully circumnavigate the earth alone when he landed his sloop Spray in Newport, R.I., a 46,000-mile trip.

June 27, 1985: The legendary Route 66, running from Chicago to Santa Monica, Calif., was decertified, the victim of the Interstate Highway System.

June 30, 1859: French Acrobat Charles Blondin, AKA Jean Francois Gravelet, walked across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

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