4 Oct 1883: first run of the Orient Express

On this day in 1883, the Orient Express – a name synonymous with opulence and comfort – began its first run from Paris to Constantinople.

A few facts on the Orient Express:

• It originally included a ferry ride
• A train by the same name now operates from London to Venice
• The original route is recreated once each year by the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express

Famous people who used the Orient Express:

• The founder of the Boy Scouts, Lord Baden-Powell (note the hyphenation!*), used it to investigate Balkan military sites
• Mata Hari, the famous dancer-turned-WWI-spy, rode it frequently, using her charms to collect information from passengers
• In 1918, the Germans surrendered to the Allies aboard a dining car; in 1940, Hitler used the exact same car to have the French sign their surrender
• Raoul Wallenberg took the train to buy fake papers to save Hungarian Jews

*I seem to recall a Final Jeopardy! where someone put “Who is Powell?” as a response about the founder of the Boy Scouts and got dinged for it, but I can’t find it in the J! Archive

Some treatments in fiction:

• Agatha Christie wrote her famous book Murder on the Orient Express in 1934; the train left from Istanbul and its ultimate destination was Calais
• Ingrid Bergman won her third and final Oscar for portraying Greta Ohlsson in the 1974 film based on the book
• The 1938 film The Lady Vanishes is also set on the train

For more on the Orient Express, visit this page at trains-worldexpress.com.

Image: the refurbished Train Bleu in Paris. IMA/Jerome Galland via The Wall Street Journal