Sunday 8th December 1861
Legendary American industrialist William Crapo Durant was born in New York. He established a carriage company in 1886 and joined the new but failing Buick Motor Car Co. in 1903, quickly reviving it. In 1908, he brought together several car manufacturers to form the General Motors Company. He lost control of the company two years later, but with Louis Chevrolet he founded the Chevrolet Motor Co., which acquired control of General Motors in 1915. During the Wall Street Crash Durant purchased along with the Rockefeller family and other financial giants, large quantities of stocks, to demonstrate to the public their confidence in the stock market. His effort proved costly and failed to stop the market slide. By 1936, the 75-year-old Durant was bankrupt