On This Day In History, February 17th

1. 1933: First Issue of Newsweek is published

PHOTO: Newsweek

PHOTO: Newsweek

PHOTO: Wiki

PHOTO: Wiki

Using a $2.5 Million investment former foreign new editor for Time Magazine Thomas J.C. Martyn, started up his own magazine company called Newsweek. On this day the first issue was published and it was printed in black and white with just 32 pages and cost just 10 cents.

2. 1959: United States sends first Weather Station into space, the Vangard II

PHOTO: Wiki

PHOTO: Wiki

PHOTO: NASA

PHOTO: NASA

On this day using the Vanguard SLV 4 Rocket the United States took the lead in the space race against USSR by sending the first weather satellite into space the Vanguard II. The satellite was set to monitor cloud cover distribution for about 19 days, but then would continue to measure the atmospheric density for the remainder of its 300 year life cycle. As of Feb 17, 2016 the Vanguard II is still in orbit.

3. 1972: The Beetle overtakes the Model T as the best selling car ever made.

PHOTO: EuroCarNews

PHOTO: EuroCarNews

On this day the 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle comes off the assembly line in 1972, making it the best selling car ever made. It takes the record from the model T which started production back in 1908 so it had held the record for quite some time. The model T still holds the ultimate record being the very first mass produced car. Unfortunately the Beetle origin story has direct ties with the Nazi Leader Adolf Hitler back in the 1930’s. Hitler proclaimed that he wanted to make an affordable car for germans to drive and Ferdinand Porsche has already been working on a small affordable car so Hitler tasked Porsche to design the new “peoples car”. In 1938 work began on building the Volkswagen Factory but full scale production didn’t start until after World War I. After more than 60 years and over 21 million vehicles produced, the last original Beetle rolled off the line in Puebla, Mexico, on July 30, 2003.