Thursday 3rd May 1849

Bertha Benz (wife of Karl) was born. 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, to become the first person to drive an automobile over more than a very short distance. Before this historic event automobile trips were only a few miles long, and were merely trials with mechanical assistants.