February 18, 1902: The Berlin U-Bahn Opens

February 18, 1902: The Untergrundbahn, or underground railway, opens in Berlin, the capital of the German Empire. Known as the "U-bahn" for short, it becomes one of the leading transportation systems of Europe.

Berlin also has the Stadtbahn (state railway) and the Stadtschnellbahn (city rapid railway), which both run above ground. The U-bahn stations are marked with signs with a U, and the S-bahn stations with an S.

On April 25, 1945, the whole system ground to a halt, when the power station supplying the network failed. By the end of the year, some stations were reopened, and the reconstruction was completed in 1950.

But the consequent division of Berlin into East and West sectors brought further changes to the U-Bahn. Although the network spanned all sectors, and residents had freedom of movement, West Berliners increasingly avoided the Soviet sector and, from 1953, loudspeakers on the trains gave warnings when approaching the border, where passage of East Germans into the Western sectors also became subject to restrictions imposed by their government.

When construction began on the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961, trains that crossed into the East and back into West were not allowed to stop for passengers in the East, and became known as Geisterbahnhöfe: "Ghost Stations." Only at Friedrichstraße (Frederick Street), a designated border crossing point, were passengers allowed to disembark. The entire system was reopened with the East German government rendering the Berlin Wall legally meaningless on November 9, 1989.

Hamburg opened an U-bahn system in 1912; Munich in 1971 in preparation for the 1972 Olympics and the 1974 World Cup; and Nuremburg in 1972, also in preparation for the World Cup. Most other German cities don't have U-bahns, but they do have S-bahns.

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February 18, 1902 was a Tuesday. Baseball and football were out of season. Basketball barely existed. And hockey season ended the previous month, when the Winnipeg Victorias won the Stanley Cup. So there were no scores on this historic day.