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On This Day in Automotive History: October 20

On This Day in Automotive History
October 20

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Birthdays: Rupert Jeffkins (1881), Manny Ayulo (1921), Bob Burdick (1936), Goldie Parsons (1941), Walter Brun (1942), Tom Caturegli (1943), Randy Slack (1950), Kevin Litchfield (1953), Doug Presley (1954), David Triplett (1954), Larry Brolsma (1955), Don Jenkins (1958), Mark King (1960), Taz Harvey (1961), Philippe Olczyk (1961), Clifford Allison (1964), Dave Snodgrass (1964), Neil Browder (1969), Corey LaCosta (1969), Scott Fraser (1970), Mario Gosselin (1971), Van Peter Hanson (1971), Patrick-Otto Madsen (1973), Sam Witwer (1977), Ricardo Gonzalez (1978), Spencer Trenery (1979), Ryan Foster (1980), Chris Denny (1982), Phil Keen (1983), Peyton Sellers (1983), Jason Timmerman (1983), Michael Leavine (1989), Sam Charland (1991), Niklas Kruetten (2002)

1892: In Chicago, Illinois, over 1,000 people attend the organizational meeting of the National League for Good Roads. General Roy Stone, who issued a call for the congress on September 8, is elected General Vice President and Acting Secretary. His opening address concludes: "The Government of the United States is as much the servant and instrument of the whole people as a State Government is of a part, and when [the people] determine again to use that servant and instrument in this business, for purposes of inquiry or of remedy, the only 'danger' will be to those who 'stop the way.'"

1969: On behalf of the International Road Federation, Emperor Haile Selassie I presents the "Man of the Year" Award to Administrator Frank Turner in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the 1st African Highway Conference. The honor is "In recognition of his achievements as a leader in highways and highway transportation developments in the United States and his contributions to these same interests worldwide."

1984: The American Society of Civil Engineers honors the Linn Cove Viaduct, which hugs Grandfather Mountain on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, with a Special Achievement Award. A plaque is affixed to a monument at the Linn Cove National Park Visitor Center. The viaduct was designed by Figg and Muller Engineers, Inc., for FHWA's Eastern Direct Federal Division and the NPS. This award is one of nine design and construction achievement awards granted to the 1,243-foot long post-tensioned, precast segmental concrete box girder bridgethe first in North America to be built by the progressive cantilever method.

2002: The first episode of the modern version of Top Gear aired.

2005: The film Backseat was first released at the Austin Film Festival.