1906 – The First Mason Motor Car Is Produced
The first Mason motor car was produced on August 16, 1906, introducing a small but interesting name in early American automobile history. The Mason Motor Car Company was based in Des Moines, Iowa, and had ties to the same early automotive world that produced names like Duesenberg and Maytag. Its first car grew from a prototype known as the Marvel, powered by a two-cylinder engine and aimed at buyers looking for a simple, affordable automobile. Mason later became connected to Fred and August Duesenberg, whose engineering talent helped shape the company’s better-known cars. Although Mason never became a major manufacturer, its story reflects the experimental energy of the early auto industry, when dozens of small companies tried to turn mechanical ideas into viable businesses.
1937 – Harvard Introduces Traffic Engineering Courses
Harvard University became the first American university to offer graduate-level courses in traffic engineering and administration on August 16, 1937. By the late 1930s, the automobile had already transformed American cities, creating new problems around congestion, safety, street design, parking, signals, and road planning. Traffic engineering emerged as a profession because motor vehicles had become too important, and too disruptive, to manage casually. Harvard’s program helped formalize the study of traffic flow and transportation administration at a time when cities were still learning how to adapt to mass motoring. It was a quiet but important milestone, showing that the automobile’s impact extended far beyond factories, showrooms, and race tracks.
1984 – John DeLorean Is Acquitted of Drug Trafficking Charges
Automotive executive John Z. DeLorean was acquitted of drug trafficking charges by a federal jury in Los Angeles on August 16, 1984. DeLorean had been accused in a highly publicized cocaine-trafficking case after his stainless-steel sports car company collapsed, but his defense argued that he had been entrapped by government agents. The verdict ended one of the strangest chapters in American automotive business history. DeLorean had once been a rising star at General Motors, helping shape cars such as the Pontiac GTO before leaving to build the DeLorean DMC-12 in Northern Ireland. His acquittal did not restore his company, but it added another layer to the myth surrounding a car that would soon become famous for a very different reason in Back to the Future.
2004 – General Motors Announces Cadillac Production in China
General Motors announced on August 16, 2004, that it would begin building Cadillacs in China, marking an important step in the brand’s global expansion. The move came as GM and its Chinese joint venture partners pushed deeper into what was becoming one of the fastest-growing luxury car markets in the world. Cadillac had long been associated with American prestige, but producing the brand in China signaled that luxury was becoming a global battlefield. GM’s decision also reflected the growing importance of China to major automakers, not just as an export destination but as a production and development center. Cadillac’s Chinese expansion became part of a much larger shift in the auto industry’s center of gravity.
2009 – Usain Bolt’s BMW M3 Crash Makes Global Headlines
On August 16, 2009, Olympic sprint legend Usain Bolt made headlines far beyond the track after crashing his BMW M3 in Jamaica, months after surviving another high-profile BMW crash earlier that year. While not an automotive industry milestone, the incident became part of the long connection between celebrity, speed, performance cars, and public attention. The BMW M3 was already an icon among driving enthusiasts, known for blending everyday usability with serious performance. When one of the fastest humans on Earth was linked to one of the world’s most famous sport sedans, the story practically wrote itself. It was a reminder that performance cars carry cultural weight well beyond horsepower figures, especially when they intersect with fame, risk, and speed.
