Sunday 5th August 1888

Bertha Benz (née Ringer) without her husband Karl’s knowledge, drove her sons, Richard and Eugen, fourteen and fifteen years old, in one of Benz’s newly-constructed “Patent Motorwagen” automobiles — from Mannheim to Pforzheim — becoming the first person to drive a motor car over more than a very short distance. The distance was more than 60 miles (c. 106 km).