December 1:

1990 : Chunnel makes breakthrough Shortly after 11 a.m. on December 1, 1990, 132 feet below the English Channel, workers drill an opening the size of a car through a wall of rock. This was no ordinary hole--it connected the two ends of an underwater tunnel linking Great Britain with the European mainland for the first time in more than 8,000 years. The Channel Tunnel, or "Chunnel," was not a new idea. It had been suggested to Napoleon Bonaparte, in fact, as early as 1802. It wasn't until the late 20th century, though, that the necessary technology was developed. In 1986, Britain and France signed a treaty authorizing the construction of a tunnel running between Folkestone, England, and Calais, France. Over the next four years, nearly 13,000 workers dug 95 miles of tunnels at an average depth of 150 feet (45 meters) below sea level. Eight million cubic meters of soil were removed, at a rate of some 2,400 tons per hour. The completed Chunnel would have three interconnected tubes, including one rail track in each direction and one service tunnel. The price? A whopping $15 billion. After workers drilled that final hole on December 1, 1990, they exchanged French and British flags and toasted each other with champagne. Final construction took four more years, and the Channel Tunnel finally opened for passenger service on May 6, 1994, with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and France's President Francois Mitterrand on hand in Calais for the inaugural run. A company called Eurotunnel won the 55-year concession to operate the Chunnel, which is the crucial stretch of the Eurostar high-speed rail link between London and Paris. The regular shuttle train through the tunnel runs 31 miles in total--23 of those underwater--and takes 20 minutes, with an additional 15-minute loop to turn the train around. The Chunnel is the second-longest rail tunnel in the world, after the Seikan Tunnel in Japan. Did you know that the New York City workers who build tunnels like the Chunnel are called Sandhogs? Watch full episodes of SANDHOGS. Buy the Cities of the World: Above and Below Collection http://shop.history.com/detail.php?p=77385&ECID=EMC-0000051&pa=EMC-0000051 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

General Interest 1990 : Chunnel makes breakthrough http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=5566 1824 : Presidential election goes to the House http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5564 1934 : Sergey Kirov murdered http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5565 1955 : Rosa Parks ignites bus boycot http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=7098