| History according to a Carnut!!!
Special thanks to the History Channel |
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| Other months of Carnut's History Jan/Feb | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
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| June 1, 1917 Cadillac founder resigns Henry Leland, the founder of the Cadillac Motor Car Company, resigned as company president on this date in 1917. Ever since William Durant had arranged for General Motors (GM) to purchase Cadillac, Leland and Durant had endured a strained relationship. But Leland's electric starter had made Cadillac so successful early on that Durant had avoided meddling with the autonomy of his company. Leland's next great achievement at Cadillac was his supervision of his son's proposal that Cadillac should introduce a V-8 engine. Previously Cadillac, and most other American companies, had only offered four-cylinder engines. Cadillac aimed to create a more powerful, higher quality V-8 engine. In order to keep the project secret, Leland contracted the engine parts for his new engine to over half a dozen New England firms in such a way that the companies had no idea what the parts were for. They were then delivered to a dummy manufacturing firm called Ideal Manufacturing Company. The new Cadillac car with its V-8 was put on the market in 1914. The engine proved a great success and was standard in Cadillacs until 1927. The success was followed, however, by the outbreak of war in Europe. Leland had visited the continent a few years earlier as part of a contingent of engineers. He had returned to America convinced that war in Europe was inevitable, he was adamant that the United States would become involved sooner or later, and at the outbreak of the war he urged Durant to let Cadillac convert its facilities to the manufacture of aircraft engines, specifically the Liberty engine. The two stubborn men butted heads. Durant refused to respond to Leland's urgings, and Leland resigned. Leland left and started the Lincoln Motor Car Company. In 1917, he won the first contract to manufacture Liberty engines for the war effort. By the war's end, Lincoln had manufactured more Liberty engines than any other single company. Two GM brands, Cadillac and Buick, also manufactured Liberty engines. |
June 2, 1970 Bruce McLaren crashes Born in Auckland, New Zealand, McLaren contracted a childhood hip disease that would keep him in hospitals for three years of his early life. By the age of 14, he had recovered fully. His father, a part-time mechanic with an interest in racing, helped Bruce build his first car. Bruce entered his first competitive event, a hill climb, when he was 15. At 19, McLaren was picked by his mentor, successful Kiwi Grand Prix driver Jack Brabham, to serve as New Zealand's representative in the Driver in Europe Program. The following year he became the youngest man ever to win a Formula One Grand Prix event, a record that he still holds today. By 1964, he was building his own race cars and aiding Ford's design team in its highly successful GT program. McLaren exhibited a gift for car design. In 1966, he won the 24 Hours of LeMans for Ford. In 1965, McLaren started his own Grand Prix racing team. Then McLaren turned his attention to the sports-car racing of the Can-AM Series. After four impressive years at the top of the series, in 1969 the McLaren Team posted a clean sheet, winning 11 of 11 races. He summed up his attitude toward the dangers of car racing eloquently: "To do something well is so worthwhile, that to die trying to do it better cannot be foolhardy. It would be a waste of life to do nothing with one's ability, for I feel that life is measured in achievement, not in years alone." In 1970, car racer, designer, and manufacturer Bruce McLaren was killed when his McLaren M8D lost its back end at high speed and collided with an earthen embankment at the Goodwood racetrack in England. |
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| June 3, 1864 Ransom Olds is born Ransom Eli Olds was born in the northeastern Ohio town of Geneva. When Ransom was 16, his Father opened a machine shop called Pliny Olds & Son. When Ransom turned 21, he bought his older brother's share of the business. Ransom worked tirelessly. Not long after becoming his son's partner, Pliny realized Ransom was better capable of taking their family business to another level, and by 1890, Ransom Olds acted as general manager of the family company. Olds began to experiment with steam engines as a means for propelling water and road vehicles. It's not clear exactly when he began working on road carriages; he claims in 1886, but it was likely sometime after that. His father disapproved of his son's obsession with road vehicles, saying, "Ranse thinks he can put an engine in a buggy and make the contraption carry him over the roads. If he doesn't get killed at his fool undertaking, I will be satisfied." One of his last steam engines, a 1200-hundred-pound vehicle ostensibly capable of pushing 15mph (provided the road was flat), gained Olds the attention of Scientific American magazine. Then, in 1893, Ransom's vision took shape when he saw demonstrations of gasoline engines at the Chicago World's Fair. By 1895, his company had already applied for a patent on their own design of a gasoline engine. Production of the gas-burning engine brought record profits to Olds' business. Ransom began experimenting with gas-burning horseless carriages, and in June of 1896 he completed a prototype. It wasn't the first such vehicle (among others, the Duryeas had already built gas-burning cars) but Olds' car generated unprecedented interest--due, at least partly, to the successful manufacturing company that lay behind it. Olds then raised money to go into production on his car. He incorporated the Olds Motor Vehicle Works separately form P.F. Olds & Son. The venture was largely speculative, fueled by the money of already rich Lansing businessmen who were willing to part with a small sum in hopes of getting a great return. As it turned out, the money wasn't enough for Olds to go into production. In searching for more capital, Olds merged his family business with the Olds Motor Works and sold new shares of their combined stock to raise the money he needed. On March 8, 1899, the Olds Motor Works, the actual grandfather to today's Oldsmobile, was formed. |
June 4, 1896 Ford test-drives the Quadricycle At approximately 1:30 a.m., Henry Ford test-drove his Quadricycle, the first automobile he ever designed or drove. Ford was working at the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit at the time that he began building the Quadricycle. He had reportedly seen an article on the gasoline engine in American Machinist while in the company of friend and fellow engineer, Charles King. In King's recollection Ford claimed, "I want to build one of these." King provided Ford with a whole crew of workers who worked in the makeshift machine shop Ford had constructed in his garage behind his Bagley Avenue residence in Detroit. Ford did make one major innovation in building his first vehicle: he decided not to attach an engine to an existing carriage, but rather to construct a four-wheel body based on the principles of bicycle manufacturing. Ford completed his "Quadricycle" early in the morning on this day in 1896. He couldn't wait to test the invention. Only one of his associates, Jim Bishop, was present at the time of the vehicle's completion. The 500-pound, two-cylinder vehicle came to life in the alley behind Ford's house. Ford drove it down Bagley Avenue to Grand River Avenue, to Washington Boulevard, when the Quadricycle stopped. Bishop and Ford pushed the automobile to the Edison plant, where they replaced a nut and spring that had come loose. The next month, Henry drove his vehicle to his father's farm to show it off. His father apparently walked around it cautiously. Later he expressed his doubts to one of his neighbors: "John and William (Henry's brothers) are all right, but Henry worries me. He doesn't seem to settle down, and I don't know what's going to become of him." |
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| June 5, 1951 | June 6, 1932 |
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T-Top patent is issued Gordon M. Buehrig was issued a U.S. patent for his "vehicle top with removable panels," an invention that would eventually appear as a "T-top" on the 1968 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. Buehrig was one of the early automobile stylists. Buehrig was one of the first choosen by Harley Earl for General Motors' (GM) new Art and Colour Section. He also was responsible for getting rid of running boards...but his boss first got the credit. It is unknown if the rumours are true, that before the t-roof thing he invented a spray that removed the mildew smell from Automobile carpets that got wet from leaky roofs, and it did not sell well until 1968 with introduction of the first T-roofs on Corvettes... |
First gas tax enacted The first gasoline tax levied by Congress was enacted as a part of the Revenue Act of 1932. The Act mandated a series of excise taxes on a wide variety of consumer goods. Congress placed a tax of 1¢ per gallon on gasoline and other motor fuel sold. |
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| June 6, 1933 |
June 7, 1954 |
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Richard Hollingshead opened the first drive-in movie theater in Camden, New Jersey. Hollingshead was the sales manager for Whiz Auto Products in Camden when he came up with the idea for the drive-in. He acted on the notion that few Americans at that time would give up the pleasure of going to the movies, had they the chance. In 1933, though, moviegoing wasn't a family event, as few couples felt comfortable bringing their kids to the theater. Going to the movies involved getting dressed up, finding a babysitter, and driving down to a crowded Main Street to look for parking. Hollingshead believed that the drive-in would solve these problems: moviegoers didn't have to park their cars or dress up, and the kids could join their parents. Hollingshead began to experiment in his driveway at home. He mounted a 1928 Kodak film projector on the hood of his car and projected onto a screen he'd nailed to two trees in his backyard. He placed a radio behind the screen for sound. He even ran tests in simulated rainy conditions by running his sprinkler on his car while watching films. He also planned the cars' spacing by using his friends' cars to simulate a crowded theater. By using risers, he found he could afford all cars a view. He went to the patent office on August 6, 1932, and on May 16 he received exclusive rights for his idea with U.S. patent #1,909,537. A Delaware court later overturned the patent in 1950, but not before the inventor got his due. Hollingshead spent $30,000 on his first drive-in on Crescent Boulevard in Camden. The admission price was 25¢ per car and 25¢ per person, with no car paying more than $1.00. |
Edsel design team goes to work On this day in 1954, the Ford Motor Company formed a styling team to take on the project of designing an entirely new car that would later be named the Edsel. The decision came as Ford enjoyed its greatest historical success in the 1950s. The 1955 Thunderbird had outsold its Chevy counterpart, the Corvette, and the consumer demand for automobiles, in all price brackets, was steadily increasing.In exuberant Ford plants, signs that had once read "Beat Chevrolet" were changed to a more ambitious tune, "Beat GM (General Motors)." In the mid-1950s, Americans seemed to have an insatiable hunger for high horse-powered, heavily styled cars, with lots of chrome and many accessories. The company spared no expense in the development of its new car, even going so far as to employ famous American poet Marianne Moore to supply possibilities for its name. After an extensive name search and no satisfactory result, somebody suggested that the car be named after Henry Ford II's father, Edsel. . By the time the Edsel was released in 1957, the high end of the car market had once again contracted. Public reaction to the car's exaggerated styling was tepid at best, with particular objections aimed at the Edsel's awkward-looking "horse collar" grill. To this day, the Edsel remains the biggest failure in American car history, "a monumental disaster created for tomorrow's markets created by yesterday's statistical inputs." History has treated the Edsel more kindly, as its looks are now considered to be an attractive example of 1950s flair. Like its namesake, Edsel Ford, the Edsel has come to be known as an unfair victim of circumstance. The Edsel was the biggest failure in American Car History...but seeing the emerging small car market grow in the 70's with no real oppostion from the Big 3 other than the Pinto, Vega Etc. makes the Edsel failure look like a cake walk. |
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| June 9, 1916 Robert McNamara is born Robert Strange McNamara was born in San Francisco, California, on this date in 1916. McNamara received a degree in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, and then later an MBA from Harvard Business School. He volunteered as an instructor for a Harvard program designed to teach Army Air Corps officers the principles of systematic management. After the war, Thornton marketed his team's management skills to private companies. Enter Ford Motor Corporation. Reigning atop a messy, outdated family company registering heavy losses, Henry Ford II was smart enough to recognize that the system he had inherited form his grandfather was in need of an overhaul. He hired Thornton's group, and the group was labeled the "Whiz Kids." They instituted a modern economic approach to Ford's business administration, implementing organizational changes to make the planning and production processes more systematic. He instituted the systematic sampling of public opinion, "market research"; he hired Lee Iaccoca; and he conceived the Ford Falcon, Ford's most successful car until the release of the Mustang in 1964. A registered Republican, McNamara was offered a cabinet position by John F. Kennedy after the 1960 presidential election. Given the choice of becoming secretary of defense or secretary of the treasury, McNamara chose the Defense Department. McNamara remained secretary of defense until 1968, when his changing attitude toward the war in Vietnam led him to resign. |
June 8, 1986 Tim Richmond wins first Winston Cup race Tim Richmond won the first of his seven Winston Cup Series races in 1986, a total that would vault him to third place in the Series point race and solidify his reputation as one of NASCAR's greatest drivers. NASCAR named he and fellow racer, Dale Earnhardt, co-drivers of the year. He turned to NASCAR for the first time while recovering from an injury he suffered in an Indy race. Richmond immediately fell in love with stock car racing. Unlike many NASCAR Drivers and Fans Richmond wore Armani suits, dated beautiful women, and rubbed elbows with a variety of jetsetters, including actors and rock stars. NASCAR's executives were less accepting of Richmond's flamboyance, but they could do little to prevent their sport's newest star from expressing his opinions. Richmond fell sick during the winter of 1986-1987. Hewas diagnosed with the AIDS virus. His friends and family were caught off-guard. His team leader and mentor Rick Hendrick explained, "It was like my first time... I didn't know what it actually meant--what the prognosis was. The more you found out... it just killed you." AIDS was still a mystery to most at that stage. The Miller 500 at the Pocono Speedway was Richmond's first race back. Earnhardt approached him before the race and asked, "You ready to get it on?" Richmond won the race. Earnhardt, Kyle Petty, and Bill Elliott drove alongside him to offer congratulations, and Richmond burst into tears. He remained in tears on victory lane. It was his last victory. In September 1987, Richmond resigned from Hendrick's team. When he attempted to arrange a comeback at Daytona in 1988, NASCAR did everything they could to keep him off the track. Slowly, Tim's friends and supporters dwindled. NASCAR trumped up a failed drug-test charge to keep Richmond off the track. He sued, but later withdrew his case on the grounds that he wanted to keep his condition private. He died that winter. Richmond has virtually disappeared in the NASCAR history books. "It all boils down to AIDS," said his friend Kyle Petty, "I don't care what anybody tells you, nobody knows how to handle AIDS, especially in a sport as backward-thinking on so many things as this sport is." When asked about Richmond, Dale Earnhardt responded, "I miss him. Period." Undeniably, Tim Richmond was one of the most talented drivers to ever race a stock car. |
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