1. 1913: Ford started using an assembly line
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It was on this date in 1913 that manufacturing as a whole was changed forever when Henry Ford started using an assembly line to mass produce the Model T. Although technically certain aspects of the assembly line can be traced back long before Henry Ford, he’s the one commonly associated with revolutionizing the process. Originally he had gotten the idea from a meat packing plant and in early 1913 he decided to try it a small section of his factory in Highland Park, Michigan that created flywheel magnetos. Normally it took roughly 20 minutes to build one of the magnetos, but once the assembly line was installed the time immediately dropped down to 13, and shortly thereafter as low as 5 minutes. Because of the success of this test run, Ford decided to create an assembly line for the manufacturing of the Model T from beginning to end. This significantly cut the man hours required to build the car from 12 1/2 hours down to just six and within the first year that was down to just over 90 minutes. By 1927 when productions stopped on the Model T, after more than 15 million had been built, the assembly line was so efficient that a new car was completed every 24 seconds.
2. 2003: Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California
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Many Americans were extremely surprised with it was announced that Arnold Schwarzenegger had been elected the Governor of California on this date in 2003. The former bodybuilder from Austria turned action movie superstar was one of 135 candidates on the ballot that year wich included other celebrities, career poloticians, and even an adult film star. The campaign lasted roughly 11 weeks leading up to the election and not only did Schwarzenegger win, but he dominated the competition by a margin of over 1 million votes. Schwarzenegger replaced Gray Davis, who was the first United States Governor to be recalled by the people since 1921.
3. 1984: Water Payton beat Jim Brown’s all-time rushing record.
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It was on this date in 1984 that Chicago Bears running back, Walter Payton, surpassed the great Jim Brown becoming the NFL’s all-time leading rusher. At the start of the game versus the New Orleans Saints, Payton only needed 66 yards to beat Brown’s record of 12,312 career yards gained. Considering that Payton had finished the previous weeks game against the Dallas Cowboys with 155 yards, getting those 66 yards wasn’t going to be a problem. However, the Bears had been fairly inconsistent during the first 5 games of the season leading up to the game against the Saints so it wasn’t guaranteed, although Payton did set another record of rushing for at least 100 yards in 59 games. Payton went out in the first half of the game and rushed for a total of 64 yards meaning that he only needed 3 yards to set a new record. On the first play of the second half, quarterback Jim McMahon pitched the ball to Payton running a popular play called “Toss 28 Weak” that utilizes blocking from a pulling left guard and fullback that resulted in a six-yard run. In preparation for the monumental event, Bears officials wanted to stop the game for a proper ceremony after the record was beaten. But Payton felt that the team’s momentum in the game was far more important than a silly ceremony. So they did pause for a brief moment to allow teammates and others to congratulate the man, and the football used to beat the record was given to officials of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But then the game resumed, which paid off in the end because the Bears went on to win 20-7. Payton retired just two years later with a total of 16,726 career rushing yards, which was a record he held until October of 2002 when Emmitt Smith surpassed him.