On This Date in History: February 4th

1. George Washington gets elected as the First President of the United States in 1789.

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On February 4th 1789, a room full of 68 members of congress cast their ballots to elect George Washington as the first President of the United States of America. Now most people would jump at the oppurtuity to be one of the most powerful people on the planet but not George, its been said that he sidestepped and even flat out rejected taking the presidency for months before finally accepted Congress’ decision. Washington was also the leader of the Continental Army prior to him being elected. When congress proposed that they wanted to address him with is offical title of “His Highness, the President of the United States of America and the Protector of Their Liberties” the embarrassed Washington felt “Mr. President” was a much better fit.

2. First U.S. Helicopter Gets Shot Down In Vietnam, 1962

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In 1962, 15 Vertol H-21C Shawnee helicopters were on a transportation mission ferrying South Vietmanise soldiers onto the battlefield outside Hong My village in the Mekong Delta and one of them was shot down. These awkwardly shaped helicopters were excellent for ground troop transportation but also due to the double blade design they were able to carry a lot of weight underneath

3. In 1922 Ford Buys Luxury Brand Lincoln

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In the 1920’s Henry Ford had been making his Model T for around 12 years and he was starting to loose his title of king of the Automotive World market share to General Motors because they had such a wide variety of vehicles available to the public. With brands Like Cadilac GM had high end luxury cars which at the time was something Ford was not able to provide. Henry M Leland who originally worked for the “Ford Motor Company” branched off to create Cadillac in 1902 and then later in 1917 created the Lincoln brand as well. Leland sold Cadillac to General Motors in 1909 for $4.5 million but remained on as an executive until 1917 when he left to create the Lincoln brand which he then turned around and sold to Henry Ford in 1922 for $8 Million. Do you realize how much money $8 million was in 1922, maybe its a stretch but we would almost think that would be like $8 billion today.