Tuesday 9th May 1882
Henry John Kaiser, an American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding, was born. In 1945, Kaiser partnered with veteran automobile executive Joseph Frazer to establish a new automobile company from the remnants of Graham-Paige, of which Frazer had been president. It used a surplus Ford Motor Company defense plant at Willow Run, Michigan originally built for World War II aircraft production by Ford. Kaiser Motors produced cars under the Kaiser and Frazer names until 1955, when it abandoned the US market and moved production to plants in Brazil and Argentina.