Sunday 25th August 1963
Karl Probst (59), credited with the design of the Jeep in 1940, died. The original Jeep was created by American Bantam Car Company in Butler, Pennsylvania, designed for use by the U.S Army during World War II. Probst drafted the design for the Jeep in two days, commencing on 17 June 1940. Bantam’s first hand-built prototype was complete and running by September 21, 1940, just meeting the 49-day deadline and was delivered to the Army Quartermaster Corps for testing at Camp Holabird, MD.