On June 30, 1953, workers at a Chevrolet plant in Flint, Michigan,
watch as the first completed Corvette, a two-seater sports car
that would become an American icon, rolls off the assembly line.
It was one of just 300 Corvettes made that year.
The last Packard—the classic American luxury car with the
famously enigmatic slogan “Ask the Man Who Owns One”—
rolled off the production line at Packard’s plant in Detroit,
Michigan on June 25, 1956.
Packard was founded by James Ward Packard, his brother
William, and their partner, George Lewis Weiss, in Warren,
Ohio.
The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899.
The Packard brothers, William Doud (left) and James Ward
(right) as seen in company portraits.
On May 30, 1911, Ray Harroun drove his single-seater Marmon
Wasp to victory in the inaugural Indianapolis 500, now one of
the world’s most famous motor racing competitions.
The Indiana automobile dealer Carl Fisher first proposed building
a private auto testing facility in 1906, in order to address car manufacturers’ inability to test potential top speeds of new cars
due to the poorly developed state of the public roadways.
The result was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, built on 328
acres of farmland five miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis.
By the mid-1920s, the Indy 500 had become what it is today–a
high-paying event for the world’s most expensive cars.
Carl Graham Fisher
(January 12, 1874 – July 15, 1939)
Ray Harroun takes the checkered flag.
Ray Harroun ( 1879 – 1968)
On May 28, 1937, the government of Germany—then under
the control of Adolf Hitler of the National Socialist (Nazi)
Party—forms a new state-owned automobile company.
Later that year, it was named simply Volkswagenwerk,
or “The People’s Car Company.”
After nearly 70 years and more than 21 million units
produced, the last original Beetle rolled off the line
in Puebla, Mexico, on July 30, 2003.
In 2003 the last production Type 1 VW Beetle rolled off the assembly line.
On May 25, 1994, the ashes of 71-year-old George Swanson are
buried (according to Swanson’s request) in the driver’s seat of
his 1984 white Corvette in Irwin, Pennsylvania.
Swanson, a beer distributor and former U.S. Army sergeant during
World War II, died the previous March 31 at the age of 71.
He had reportedly been planning his automobile burial for some
time, buying 12 burial plots at Brush Creek Cemetery, located 25
miles east of Pittsburgh, in order to ensure that his beloved
Corvette would fit in his grave with him.
After his death, however, the cemetery balked, amid concerns
of vandalism and worries that other clients would be offended
by the outlandish nature of the burial.
They finally relented after weeks of negotiations, but insisted
that the burial be private, and that the car be drained of fluids
to protect the environment.
