Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Janet Guthrie, who blazed new trails for women as a professional race car driver, was born in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1938. Initially, her transportation-oriented aspirations were focused on airborne travel. Guthrie earned a pilot’s license when she was only 17. After graduating from the University of Michigan, she worked for several years as a... Continue Reading →
In 1956, McKinley Thompson became the first African-American car designer for a major automobile manufacturer when the Ford Motor Company hired him. Thompson, who was born in New York City in 1922, recalled that his choice of career first took shape when he was only 12 years old. He noticed one day how sunlight broke... Continue Reading →
February 19, 1866 Mary Anderson, a multifaceted entrepreneur who made a major contribution to transportation by inventing the first practical windshield wiper, was born in Greene County, Alabama. Anderson was inspired to create her version of a windshield wiper during a trip to New York City in the winter of 1902. While traveling on one... Continue Reading →
Andre'-Gustave Citroen February 5, 1878 André-Gustave Citroën, one of France’s leading automobile manufacturers, was born in Paris. Citroën developed a strong interest in becoming an engineer early on, reportedly due to such inspirations as French writer Jules Verne’s adventure novels and their focus on technological marvels. Citroën, who graduated from the prestigious École Polytechnique just... Continue Reading →
January 29, 1878 Bicycle and automobile racer Berna Eli “Barney” Oldfield was born in York Township in northwestern Ohio. Oldfield launched his career as a bicycle racer in 1894 when he was only 16. Oldfield’s bicycle accomplishments brought him to the attention of Henry Ford, who invited him to test-drive one of his automobiles designed for... Continue Reading →
January 28, 1896 The first known speeding infraction that involved a motor vehicle took place in the village of Paddock Wood in southeastern England. Walter Arnold of the nearby village of East Peckham was caught driving a Benz automobile at eight miles (13 kilometers) per hour in a two-mile (3.2-kilometer)-per-hour zone. A constable riding a bicycle... Continue Reading →
January 17, 1936 The Airstream Trailer Company introduced a highly innovative and influential travel trailer. The new vehicle was called the Airstream Clipper, and the major force behind its creation was Wally Byam. He had been born in 1896 in Baker City, Oregon, and spent a great deal of his adolescence working on a sheep... Continue Reading →
January 14, 2010 Checker Motors Corporation, a longtime vehicle manufacturer that was best known for its popular taxicabs, ceased to exist altogether with the sale of the company’s headquarters in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The company’s origins can be traced to the early 1920s, when a Chicago clothier named Morris Markin became the owner of an automobile body... Continue Reading →
January 4, 2011 The final Mercury vehicle was produced at the Ford Motor Company’s St. Thomas Assembly Plant in the Canadian township of Southwold. This last-of-a-kind vehicle was a white Mercury Grand Marquis automobile, and it rolled off the assembly line at 7:46 a.m. Crain News Service reported a couple of days later that “Mercury’s... Continue Reading →
Photo courtesy of the Automotive Hall of Fame. December 13, 1999 Allen K. Breed, engineer, and automotive safety pioneer died in Orlando, Florida, at the age of 72. Breed, who was born in Chicago in 1927, graduated from Northwestern University with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. In 1961, he started the Breed Corporation to... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 