Missed this one from Alan Flippen at the New York Times:
Fifty years ago this week, Japan conducted the first full-length test run of the Shinkansen, or what became known in English as the bullet train. A 12-car train ran from Tokyo to Osaka and back at an average speed of just over 80 miles per hour and a peak speed of 135 m.p.h. (217 kilometers per hour).
Even then, it hit speeds that would qualify today as high-speed rail.