Born on August 15
Opening of the Panama Canal
A short cut between two oceans.
Next: August 15, 2027
Where it comes from
This Story marks the anniversary of 15 August 1914, when the Panama Canal officially opened and the steamship Ancon made the first official crossing, from Cristóbal on the Atlantic side to Balboa on the Pacific. The Panama Canal Authority calls it the realisation of a dream held for four centuries.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance, but the opening is remembered in Panama, and the Panama Canal Authority, the Panamanian agency that now runs the canal, marks its round-number anniversaries. The opening itself was quiet: the grand celebrations that had been planned were called off, and no foreign dignitaries came.
Did you know
The first complete passage by an oceangoing vessel under its own power came earlier, on 7 January 1914, by an old French crane boat, the Alexandre La Valley.
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