automotive History

Leonardo da Vinci invents the self-propelled car. This happens many years before anyone else is even thinking about automobiles.

• 1769

• 1478

• 1789

• 1801

Richard Trevithick builds a steam powered road carriage. It is considered to be the first tramway locomotive.

• 1801

• 1807

• 1823

• 1832

Robert Anderson invents the first crude electric carriage in Scotland.

• 1823

• 1832

• 1867

• 1877

George Baldwin files the first U.S. Patent for an automobile.

• 1879

• 1870

• 1867

• 1832

Karl Benz builds the first true automobile powered by a gasoline engine.

• 1885

• 1886

• 1876

• 1890

Brothers Frank and Charles Edgar Duryea invent the first successful gas-powered car in the United States.

• 1896

• 1900

• 1893

• 1906

Henry Ford starts making the Ford Model T, nicknamed Tin Lizzie.

• 1913

• 1908

• 1900

• 1906

Abram Neiman invents the first anti-theft device, originally composed of 75 small moveable parts, and later called the “butterfly” due to its shape.

• 1931

• 1908

• 1934

• 1906

Nokian Tyres, a Finnish company, invents the winter tire for transport trucks.

• 1934

• 1913

• 1940

• 1931

Wisconsin becomes the first state to create a seat belt law.

• 1962

• 1956

• 1940

• 1949