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On This Day in Automotive History: May 19

On This Day in Automotive History
May 19

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Birthdays: Christian Werner (1892), Colin Chapman (1928), Bob Anderson (1931), Russ Bullen (1932), Ulf Norinder (1934), Tony Tantarelli (1934), Don MacLaren (1935), Willi Kauhsen (1939), Dave White (1941), Chet Jaworski (1942), Jody Ridley (1942), Leonard Sundholm (1944), Johnny Coogan (1949), Dennis Wilson (1952), Alain Ianetta (1953), Piergiuseppe Peroni (1954), Tony Spanos (1954), Paul Dean Holt Jr. (1958), Gary Baxter (1961), Robbie Cowart (1963), Mike Mendenhall (1963), Scott Youngren (1970), Matt Hutter (1971), Dario Franchitti (1973), Ross Thompson (1974), Brandon Bendele (1975), Mikie Stafford (1975), Brian Schwartz (1976), Owen Trinkler (1976), Julien Martinez (1992), Clay Green (1997)

1903: The Buick Motor Company was founded.

1909: "Good Roads Day" is held on the grounds of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri. R.W. Richardson, who had taken charge of OPRI's Middle Division on July 1, 1902, arranged to build an object lesson road on the exposition grounds.

1965: Assistant Regional Engineer Robert I. Kellum of Bureau of Public Roads tells an all-day conference at the University of Rhode Island that highway beautification is everybody's job. "Local citizens and industry should clean up back of the right of way." He also outlines the key points of President Lyndon Johnson's beautification program.

2008: A bridge on Meadow Creek Road in Boundary County, Idaho, is named the Donald R. Olson Memorial Bridge. Olson, an FHWA employee (1970-1991), had helped design and build more than 200 bridges in the Pacific Northwest. Acting Federal Highway Administrator James D. Ray says, "At 223 feet long, this is one of the nation's smallest bridges, but it is a big monument to a man who dedicated nearly four decades of service to the people of Idaho and to motorists nationwide." The bridge, which replaced the 85 year old Rutledge Bridge, opened the previous November.

2009: Germany's Daimler AG, acquired an equity stake of less than 10% in Tesla Motors for a reported US$50 million.

2015: The Takata airbag recall becomes the largest vehicle recall in history as the number of vehicles recalled rises from 40 million to 53 million.

2015: Luke Bryan released the song “Kick the Dust Up.”

2020: The film Fast and Fierce: Death Race was released.