1. 1941: Ford writes to Gandhi
Photo: source
The portable spinning wheel being delivered to Ford
Photo: source
“You are one of the greatest men the world has ever known” said Henry Ford in a letter he wrote to Mahatma Gandhi on this day in 1941. Ford was a great admirer of the life, and message, Gandhi had lived by. He also fully supported his campaign to push the British out of India. Ford asked the London based editor of the United Press of India, T.A. Raman, to hand delivered the message to Gandhi to make sure it wasn’t lost. However, Gandhi didn’t receive the message until almost 5 months later on December 8th, which happened to be the day after the attack on Pear Harbor. It was reported that Gandhi was very pleased with the message, and in return sent back one of his old-fashioned, portable spinning wheels that he used to make his own clothing. Just like Ford, Gandhi wanted to make sure his gift made it safely. So he also asked Raman to hand deliver the wheel, over 12,000 miles away, to Greenfield Village, Michigan where it was personally received by Ford himself.
