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On This Day in Automotive History: March 12

On This Day in Automotive History
March 12

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March 11 « Go to » March 13

Birthdays: Cannonball Baker (1882), Clifford Onthank (1882), David Bonney (1890), Howard Dauphin (1907), Red Byron (1915), Lawrence Milton "Zeke" Justice (1920), Charles Vogele (1923), Bob Pratt (1929), Gene Marmor (1930), Doug Easton (1931), Jimmy Lee Capps (1938), Ed Hale (1938), Johnny Rutherford (1938), Phil Gibson (1942), Bob Fox (1948), Bernie Stack (1952), Deo Alves (1958), Greg Butcher (1960), Sam Gottwald (1960), Eric de Doncker (1962), John Andretti (1963), Whit Bazemore (1963), Todd Massey (1963), John Murphy (1965), Cindy Peterson (1967), Scott Whitehouse (1967), Robert Huffman (1968), John Nemechek (1970), Guy Cosmo (1977), Lance Fenton (1977), Owen Kelly (1977), Mara Reyes (1977), Casey Mears (1978), Malcolm Strachan (1984), Marco Bonanomi (1985), Natalie Sather (1985), Jessica Hardy (1987), Kyle Shear (1988), Tyler Clary (1989), Jake Drew (2000), Lukas Dunner (2002)

1907: In an address to ARMA's Fourth Annual Convention, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Director Logan Page summarizes the history of the good roads movement and explains Office of Public Road's mission: “We hope to succeed in partially mitigating the deplorable conditions due to incorrect methods of road construction; to induce some of the road builders to exercise judgment in the selection of their road materials; to enable legislators, by placing proper information before them, to improve existing legislation.”

1919: Chief Thomas MacDonald issues regulations implementing the FY 1920 Post Office Appropriation Act of February 28, 1919. In implementing the new law, the regulations incorporate changes in response to suggestions by State highway officials, during AASHO's Annual Meeting last December, for resolving disagreements or delays identified under the Federal-aid highway program.

1968: Public Roads Director Frank Turner issues an Instructional Memorandum on “Bridge Safety Inspection,” which includes the first guide on evaluating bridge conditions. Stanley Gordon of the Bridge Division had developed the guide at Turner's request following the collapse of the Silver Bridge. Gordon has been called “the Father of Bridge Inspection.”

1970: FHWA Regional Safety Specialists Stanley Keesling and Sam Luebbert, while attending the annual meeting of the Mississippi Valley Institute of Traffic Engineers in Oklahoma City, OK, tell a reporter about tests of self-inflating balloons that are being tested as a new way of protecting motor vehicle occupants in collisions. Luebbert says, "I would love to have students-who are always looking for causes-get traffic safety as a cause."

2009: The film Love the Beast was released in Australia.

2014: The film Need for Speed was released in the UK & Ireland (initial public release).