Friday 5th July 1974
Ralph Hamlin (93), driver of the first car to reach the summit of Mount Wahington, New Hampshire, died. Hamlin also claimed to have owned the first motorcycle west of the Rockies, and participated in the committee that organised the early Los Angeles Motor Shows. Starting in about 1905, he became the distributor for Franklins in Southern California, later taking on Selden trucks and Scripps-Booth automobiles in his L.A. dealership. He entered an air-cooled Franklin in the Los Angeles to Phoenix desert races starting in 1908, winning the fifth annual event, over a distance of 511 miles, in a time of 18 hours, 10 minutes and 22 seconds.