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On This Day in Automotive History: May 11

On This Day in Automotive History
May 11

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May 10 « Go to » May 12

Birthdays: Charles Miller (1874), Dave Lewis (1881), Geoff Crossley (1921), Tim Flock (1924), Rob Schroeder (1926), Bud Ekins (1930), Bugs Stevens (1934), Gene Felton (1936), Butch Hartman (1940), Ervin Pruitt (1940), Paul Blancpain (1943), Loran Kelley (1943), Bo Lemler (1943), Jiro Yoneyama (1944), Eric van de Vyver (1954), Dennis Botticello (1955), Tim Kezman (1961), Luca Drudi (1962), Eddy Spiers (1964), Philip Morris (1965), Dave Sapienza (1965), Yasutaka Hinoi (1969), Rod MacLeod (1970), Nathalie Maillet (1970), Dan Goldburg (1978), Danny Jackson (1983), Andrew Morrissey (1984), Will Kimmel (1988), Christian Krognes (1990), Derrick O'Donnell (1990), Vicente Aguilar (1993), Ali Kern (1993), Jairo Avila Jr. (1995), Bryce Fullwood (1998), Yuki Tsunoda (2000), Mark Skulj (2004)

1965: Lady Bird Johnson participates in a bus tour of I-95 in Virginia, highlighting highway beautification. In A White House Diary, Mrs. Johnson describes the route as "a model of what can be done." She adds that Mr. and Mrs. Rex "Whitten," plus all the Cabinet wives (except Mrs. Dean Rusk), participated along with Nash Castro of the NPS and State Senator Fred Farr of California. "We had come without our hats, soon slipped out of high-heeled shoes, moved around the bus from person to person, while we drank coffee and munched homemade cookies that Mrs. Rex Whitten had brought along." [Spelling as in original.]

1969: The film Hell's Belles was released in Sweden.

1978: America's Highways: 1776-1976, produced by FHWA staff, receives the Award for Excellence in an international competition by the Society of Technical Communicators. Executive Director Lester Lamm accepts the award, which was announced on January 17. The book has since become a standard reference for highway historians.

2007: FHWA begins the move to the top 3 floors in the East Building of the Department of Transportation's new headquarters in SE Washington. The move is divided into five groups spaced over the next few weeks. The new DOT headquarters consists of two buildings, containing a total of about 2 million square feet, along the Anacostia River. The buildings are part of a revitalization of SE Washington that will include a new baseball stadium for the Washington Nationals (opened in time for the 2008 season) and a mix of retail, residential, and office properties.

2010: The NASCAR Hall of Fame opened.