Friday 5th May 1944

Bertha Benz (71), wife of Karl Benz, and the first person to drive a motor car over a long distance, died. In August 1888, without her husband’s knowledge, she drove her sons Richard and Eugen in one of Benz’s newly-constructed ‘Patent Motorwagen’ automobiles more than 60 miles from Mannheim to Pforzheim. Before this historic event automobile trips were only a few miles long, and were merely trials with mechanical assistants.