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On This Day in Automotive History: April 7

On This Day in Automotive History
April 7

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April 6 « Go to » April 8

Birthdays: Emanuel Cedrino (1879), Herman Schurch (1903), Foster Campbell (1922), Joe Allspach (1924), T.C. Hunt (1926), Glenn Killian (1929), Archie Smith (1929), John Hine (1933), Dick Whalen (1935), Richard Finnerty (1938), Georges Morand (1939), Bobby Fain (1941), Roger West (1941), Marianne Hoepfner (1944), Benoit Maechler (1949), Roberto Ragazzi (1953), Billy Thomas (1953), Bernie Lantagne (1957), Tim Ralston (1957), Jac Haudenschild (1958), Doug Richards (1960), Satoshi Hoshino (1961), Franco Scapini (1962), Keith Edge (1963), Mark McLaughlin (1964), Loy Allen Jr. (1966), Lance Stott (1966), Motoaki Ishikawa (1967), Andrea Perlini (1968), Hima Maher (1968), Benoit Theetge (1970), Billy Venturini (1976), Mike Looney (1978), Nick Lynch (1982), Philipp Baron (1986), Ines Taittinger (1990), Cassie Gannis (1991), Justin Lloyd (1992), Thomas Randle (1996), John Holleman IV (1997), Giles Thornton (1998)

1947: Henry Ford died.

1957: "The Chief," Thomas H. MacDonald, dies following a heart attack in College Station, Texas. According to State Highway Engineer Dewitt C. Greer, MacDonald "walked over to the cigar counter after a very pleasant dinner with his family and friends and bought a cigar, sat down on a comfortable divan and passed away." MacDonald was buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suitland, MD, by the side of his first wife, who died in 1935. In a tribute, his friend Pyke Johnson of the Automotive Safety Foundation, describes MacDonald as "a statesman who built an enduring monument to himself not so much in roads and bridges as in the lives of people." Johnson concluded, "Few knew him. But those few knew him as one of the men of history, who with their associates, have profoundly affected the course of modern life."

1977: William M. Cox, a native of Madisonville, Kentucky, is sworn in as Federal Highway Administrator by Secretary of Transportation Brock Adams.

1989: Production of the Dodge Lancer ended.