On June 28, 1953, workers at a Chevrolet plant in Flint, Michigan, assembled
the first Corvette, a two-seater sports car that would become an American
icon. The first completed production car rolled off the assembly line two
days later, one of just 300 Corvettes made that year.

The idea for the vehicle originated with General Motors’ pioneering designer Harley J. Earl, who in 1951 began developing plans for a
low-cost American sports car that could compete with Europe’s
MGs, Jaguars and Ferraris.

For the first time, Henry Ford’s entire Highland Park, Michigan automobile
factory is run on a continuously moving assembly line when the chassis–
the automobile’s frame–is assembled using the revolutionary industrial
technique. A motor and rope pulled the chassis past workers and parts
on the factory floor, cutting the man-hours required to complete one
“Model T” from 12-1/2 hours to six. Within a year, further assembly line improvements reduced the time required to 93 man-minutes.

The staggering increase in productivity effected by Ford’s use of the
moving assembly line allowed him to drastically reduce the cost of
the Model T, thereby accomplishing his dream of making the car
affordable to ordinary consumers.

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947)