Oldsmobile was founded on August 21, 1897, when Ransom
E. Olds (below) established the Olds Motor Vehicle Company
in Lansing, Michigan.
Ransom Eli Olds (June 3, 1864 – August 26, 1950)
Ransom Eli Olds first gasoline-powered car in 1896.
On August 4, 1790, the first U.S. Congress authorized the
construction of 10 vessels to patrol U.S. ports from
Massachusetts to Georgia.
The United States Coast Guard took form in this small
fleet of “cutters”—fast-moving, speedy sailboats—
tasked with intercepting marine smugglers and
collecting tariffs on imported goods.
It’s the brainchild of Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S.
secretary of the treasury under President George
Washington.
Originally called the “Revenue Marine” and then the
“Revenue Cutter Service,” the Coast Guard was one
of Hamilton’s many bold ideas for funding the U.S.
federal government, which was mired in debt after
the costly Revolutionary War.
CAMILLE BOHANNON
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) traces its origins
to this day in 1908, when U.S. Attorney General Charles
Bonaparte created a small group of federal investigators
to report to Chief Examiner Stanley W. Finch of the
Department of Justice, marking the official beginning
of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) under President
Theodore Roosevelt’s administration.
Prior to this, the Justice Department had no permanent
investigative force and relied on private detectives or
personnel borrowed from the Secret.
Charles Joseph Bonaparte (June 9, 1851 – June 28, 1921)
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.
