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On This Day in Automotive History: January 1

On This Day in Automotive History
January 1

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December 31 « Go to » January 2

Birthdays: C.H. Newcomb (1874), Marcel Balsa (1901), Hank Russ (1917), Roz Howard (1922), Hap Sharp (1928), Dink Widenhouse (1932), Boyd Adams (1934), Heywood Jacobs (1935), Gerard Pillon (1937), Carlo Franchi (1938), J.J. Zaffino (1939), Raymond Touroul (1939), Hans Wesski (1940), Masamitsu Ishihara (1941), Laurent Rioux (1943), Gary Fedewa (1944), Phil Caliva (1945), Jacky Ickx (1945), Leroy Maybry (1945), Martin Schanche (1945), Randolph Townsend (1947), Lonnie Pirkle (1947), Rudy Revak (1947), Jerry Williams (1947), Ricky Vanadore (1948), Terry Earwood (1949), Hans-Joachim Stuck (1951), Lars Erik Nielsen (1951), Stephen Earle (1952), Phil Cline (1954), Mike Fitzgerald (1955), Eileen Smith (1957), Lennie LeGrande (1958), Andre Beaudoin (1960), Anthony Rainone (1961), Rick Rose (1961), Bryan Cathcart (1963), Jean-Marc Gounon (1963), Jeff McCoun (1964), Kenny Gragg (1965), Neale Muston (1965), David Russell (1965), D.L. Wilson (1965), Jason Choulochas (1970), John Curran (1970), Marco Marin (1970), Jerry Miracle (1970), Spencer Maggard (1970), Scott Riggs (1971), Roger Lago (1972), Robert Tyler (1978), Michael Foy (1978), J.R. Robbs (1979), Will Cauchi (1980), Zsolt Baumgartner (1981), Jeremy Stoltz (1982), Rocco DeSimone (1983), Derek Jones (1983), Angie Dillner (1983), David Wall (1983), Timothy Jenson (1985), Jerame Donley (1986), John Freeman (1987), Miguel Angel Dasi (1989), Rene Binder (1992), Dave Coursol (1994), Kyle Barnes (1995), Ross Gunn (1997), Charlie Robertson (1997)

1931: Bridgestone was founded.

1932: Nizhegorodsky Avtomobilny Zavod (NAZ), a joint venture between the Soviet Union and the Ford Motor Company, began production of Ford Model A kits which they sold as the NAZ-A. A year later this company would become Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod (GAZ).

1965: Production begins on the Mark III Shelby Cobra.

1969: Auto Union merges with NSU to Audi NSU Auto Union AG.

1980: Valero was founded.

2006: Koyo Seiko merged with Toyoda Machinery to form JTEKT.

2006: Dieter Zetsche succeeds Jürgen Schrempp as Chairman of DaimlerChrysler.

2011: Mastretta begins production of the MXT.

2014: Fiat announced that it would purchase the portion of Chrysler LLC it did not already own, becoming the basis of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles later in the month.