DAVID MELENDY

With the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar
spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey
to the moon, safely returned to Earth on April 17, 1970.

On April 11, the third manned lunar landing mission was
launched from Florida, carrying astronauts James A. Lovell,
John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise.

Swigert reported to mission control on Earth, “Houston, we’ve
had a problem here,” and it was discovered that the normal
supply of oxygen, electricity, light and water had been disrupted.

Volkswagen, maker of the Beetle automobile, expanded its
product offerings to include a microbus, which went into
production on March 8, 1950.

Known officially as the Volkswagen Type 2 (the Beetle was
the Type 1) or the Transporter, the bus was a favorite mode
of transportation for hippies in the U.S. during the 1960s
and became an icon of the American counterculture
movement.

On March 2, 1966, in Dearborn, Michigan, the Ford Motor
Company celebrated the production of its 1 millionth
Mustang, a white convertible.

The sporty, affordable vehicle was officially launched two
years earlier, on April 17, 1964, at the World’s Fair in
Flushing Meadows, New York.

That same day, the new car debuted in Ford showrooms
across America; almost immediately, buyers snapped up
nearly 22,000 of them. More than 400,000 Mustangs were
sold within that first year, exceeding sales expectations.

Little Trees are disposable air fresheners shaped like
a stylized evergreen tree, marketed for use in motor
vehicles, and most commonly seen hanging from rear-
view mirrors. They are made of an absorbent material
produced in a variety of colors and scents.

Little Trees were invented in 1952 in Watertown, New
York, by Julius Sämann, a German-Jewish chemist
and businessman who had fled Nazi Germany. 

He had studied Alpine tree aromas in the forests of
Canada and managed to combine excellent perfumes
with a specific material and to manufacture the first
automotive air freshener.

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Julius Sämann (1911 – 1999)