The Locomotive City of Truro on This Day in History

This Day in History: The steam locomotive "City of Truro" became the first steam engine in Europe to exceed 100 mph on this day in 1904. The fastest train now is the Japanese SCMaglev bullet train which reached a speed of 375 mph (603 km/h).

Watch the SCMaglev

It was once believed that "women’s bodies were not designed to go at 50 miles an hour,” on a train and that “[female passengers’] uteruses would fly out of [their] bodies as they were accelerated to that speed.”

They actually had a train demolition derby of sorts in Crush Texas in 1896. 40,000 paid spectators assembled to watch 2 trains collide (on purpose). Despite the deaths and injuries, the event was considered a success and train collisions became main events at state fairs across the country.