The United States Patent Office issued Swedish engineer Nils
Bohlin a patent for his three-point automobile safety belt “for
use in vehicles, especially road vehicles” on July 10, 1962.

Four years earlier, Sweden’s Volvo Car Corporation had hired
Bohlin, who had previously worked in the Swedish aviation
industry, as the company’s first chief safety engineer.

Bohlin designed his three-point system in less than a year,
and Volvo introduced it on its cars in 1959.

The use of seat belts has been estimated to reduce the risk of
fatalities and serious injuries from collisions by about 50
percent.

On May 28, 1937, the government of Germany—then under
the control of Adolf Hitler (above center) of the National
Socialist Party—formed a new state-owned automobile
company, then known as Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung
des Deutschen Volkswagens. 

Later that year, it was renamed simply Volkswagenwerk, or
“The People’s Car Company.”

Originally operated by the German Labor Front, a Nazi
organization, Volkswagen was headquartered in Wolfsburg,
Germany.

In addition to his ambitious campaign to build a network of
autobahns and limited access highways across Germany,
Hitler’s pet project was the development and mass production
of an affordable yet still speedy vehicle that could sell for less
than 1,000 Reich marks (about $140 at the time).

VW Type 1 prototype.

On April 29, 2004, the last Oldsmobile, an Alero, rolled off
the assembly line in Lansing, Michigan.

On April 21, 1967, General Motors (GM) celebrates the
manufacture of its 100 millionth American-made car.

At the time, GM was the world’s largest automaker.

General Motors was established in 1908 in Flint,
Michigan, by horse-drawn carriage mogul William
Durant.

William C. Durant
(December 8, 1861 – March 18, 1947)

Volkswagen, maker of the Beetle automobile, expanded its
product offerings to include a microbus, which goes 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.