(Fox News) – A World War II veteran’s musty old Bentley that was left sitting
in a garage for three decades sold for $600,000 this week, much more than
was expected. But the amount paid may have been more of a tribute to the
owner than the car.

To be sure, the 1936 Bentley 4 1/2 Litre Vanden Plas Tourer is rare. It’s just
1 of 6 like it made, and the only one left with its original body. No one really
cared much about that when retired Royal Air Force navigator and pilot
Charles Blackham purchased it from its original owner in 1952, fixed it up
and turned it into his daily driver.

Blackham had been a member of the squadron that bombed Hitler’s “Eagles
Nest” retreat in April 1945, and he later made food drops in Europe after the
fall of the Nazi regime.

He used the Bentley until 1988 when it became too much trouble to keep it
running, and parked it in the garage at his home near Manchester, where
it sat rotting away until his death in January at age 96.

Blackham, center, and members of his squadron in WWII.
(H&H Classics)

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 2005,6th Circuit Judge of Florida George Greer
(above) ordered removal of Terri Schivo’s feeding tube. She 
died 13 days later.

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt presented his first presidential address to the nation. It was the first of the "Fireside
Chats." He used the informal radio addresses to explain his policies
to the American public.

The Girl Scout organization was founded on this day in 1912 by 
Juliette Gordon Low (above) (1860-1927). The original name was 
Girl Guides.

A meeting in 1912 with Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of
Boy Scouts, inspired Juliette to establish Girl Scouts that same
year. The first gathering was a small troop of 18 culturally and
ethnically diverse girls. The organization serves millions of girl
members today.

SANDY KOZEL

On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as
the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local 
lawmen with batons and tear gas drove them back into Selma.

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush announced
live on television that "Kuwait is liberated."