WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
GM FOUNDED
Profile America — Friday, September 16th. One of the nation's largest corporations is 108 years old today, although in common with other centenarians, it has its ailments. General Motors was launched by high school dropout William Durant of Flint, Michigan. Durant co-founded Chevrolet — named after noted racing car drivers Louis and Gaston Chevrolet, originally from Switzerland – and promoted Buick to prominence on early racetracks. Over the next dozen years, Durant headed, and then lost control of General Motors not once, but twice--the last time in 1920. In 1908, when GM was founded, there were just 198,000 cars, trucks and busses in the U.S. Today, there are over 255-million. Assembling motor vehicles is a $307-billion a year business for 336 manufacturers across the country. Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau
Sources:
Founding/accessed 7/7/2016: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/william-durant-creates-general-motors
Durant/accessed 7/7/2016: http://www.nndb.com/people/949/000060769/
Vehicles 1908: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 716
Vehicles today: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2013/mv1.cfm
Value of receipts/NAICS 3361: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ASM/2014/31AS101//naics~3361
Manufacturers/NAICS 3361: http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/BP/2014/00A1//naics~3361
Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu).
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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
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