British Overseas Airways Corporation
On 24 November 1939, BOAC was created by Act of Parliament to become the British state airline, formed from the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. The companies had been operating together since war was declared on 3 September 1939, when their operations were evacuated from the London area to Bristol. On 1 April 1940, BOAC started operations as a single company. Following the Fall of France (22 June 1940), BOAC aircraft kept wartime Britain connected with its colonies and the allied world, often under enemy fire, and initially with desperate shortages of long-range aircraft. During the war, the airline was sometimes loosely referred to as 'British Airways', and aircraft and equipment were marked with combinations of that title and/or the Speedbird symbol and/or the Union Flag.
John C. Babcock
Babcock was a rowing innovator and one of the most active people in the rowing community during his lifetime. In 1857, he and his friend William Buckingham Curtis organized the Metropolitan Rowing Club of Chicago, which was the first amateur rowing and racing club in the West. In the summer of 1857, Babcock invented the tracked sliding seat for his sculling boat and perfected it by 1870. In 1859, he and Curtis won every rowing event in the annual games at the Chicago Caledonian Club. During the winter of 1869/1870, Babcock created the first indoor rowing machine. In 1872, Babcock wrote the bylaws and helped create the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen (NAAO). He was the first President of the NAAO, which later became the United States Rowing Association (USRowing). With Harry Buermeyer and Curtis, Babcock helped found the New York Athletic Club (NYAC) in 1868. Babcock was the first elected Vice-President of the NYAC, where he encouraged the separation of amateur and professional athletics.