Friday 8th October 1869

Born on this day, Frank Duryea, US mechanic. When Duryea was just 24 years old, he and his older brother, Charles, designed and built the Duryea Motor Wagon, one of the first successful petrol-powered motor vehicles in the United States. Since then there has been a great deal of disagreement over exactly which brother was responsible for the creation of their Motor Wagon. Because he outlived Charles by almost 80 years, Frank had the last word. Until the day he died in February 1967, the younger Duryea brother insisted that the pioneering automobile was entirely his own creation.