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On This Day in Automotive History: April 2

On This Day in Automotive History
April 2

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Birthdays: Walter Chrysler (1875), Harold Van Gorder (1888), Ben Jones (1903), Paul Howe (1915), Jimmy Ayers (1917), Jack Brabham (1926), Gino Munaron (1928), Mike Hailwood (1940), Fritz Muller (1941), Dickie Boswell (1943), Tim Mitchell (1943), Guy Frequelin (1945), Peter Clark (1948), Paul Mears Jr. (1949), Steve Saleen (1949), Mark Bogue (1951), Thomas Bscher (1952), Richard Spenard (1952), Jerry Rector (1953), Roy Seidell Jr. (1953), Will Hoy (1954), Mike Barry (1955), Steve Perry (1955), Jimmy Doyle (1958), Joe Gaita (1958), Randy Ruhlman (1958), Brad Jones (1960), Fabrizio Barbazza (1963), Dan Pardus (1963), Dave Sensiba (1963), Mark White (1963), Ed Watson (1964), Gordy Brunette (1968), Hugh Price (1968), Bill Catania (1976), John Dalziel (1979), Thomas Mutsch (1979), Stuart Ricks (1981), Nicolas Lapierre (1984), Kevin Gleason (1987), Josh Wallace (1988), Chris Davis (1991), Giancarlo Vilarinho (1992), Dillon Bassett (1997)

1962: Miss Beverly Cover (pronounced KOH-ver), 22, of Cumberland, Maryland, becomes the first woman to take a full-time position with BPR as a highway engineer. A graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Miss Cover is sworn in by Deputy Administrator D. Grant Mickle while top officials Frank Turner, O. K. Normann, and Carl C. Saal look on. Miss Cover is assigned to Mr. Saal's Traffic Operations Division, where her work will include field studies using BPR's "Traffic Analyzer" to collect data on traffic flow. In 1964, Miss Cover, now Mrs. Beverly C. Norris, resigned to become a full-time mother and housewife, the same week BPR's second woman engineer, Miss Karen M. Porter, reported for duty in the Automatic Data Processing Division. Miss Porter says, "My teachers helped and encouraged me. They seemed to take pride in the fact that a girl was studying civil engineering."

1964: Saab begins Project Gudmund, which would eventually become the 99 in 1967.

1971: E.H. Ted Holmes, who joined Bureau of Public Roads in 1928, retires as Associate Administrator for Planning.

1973: John DeLorean announces that he is leaving General Motors.

1986: Senator William Proxmire gives his monthly "Golden Fleece" award for "hitting the taxpayers with a $21 million toll to pay for unused and unneeded roads and bridges."

1987: By a 67-to-33 vote, the Senate overrides President Ronald Reagan's veto of the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act, even after the President drove to Capitol Hill to lobby against the measure, which he vetoed largely because it increased the number of "demonstration" projects to what was then a record high. The Act, which extends highway user fees for 5 years and funds the Strategic Highway Research Program, is widely perceived as the final authorization of the Interstate era.

2009: The film Fast & Furious was released in 13 countries.