Ford Motor Company

Henry Ford completed the Ford Quadricycle, his first gasoline-powered automobile in 1896.

Ford Motor Company was founded at Detroit on June 16, 1903, with Henry Ford appointing himself chief engineer.

The Ford Motor Company sold its first car on July 15, 1903 to a Chicago dentist named Pfennig. An $850 two-cylinder Model A automobile with a tonneau (or backseat), the car was delivered to Dr. Pfenning just over a week later.

A Miss Rosetta Couzens bought one share in the Ford company in its very early days for $100. That investment bought her a profit of $355,000.

The first production of the Ford Model T automobile was built at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan on September 27, 1908. It had the steering wheel on the left, which every other company soon copied. The entire engine and transmission were enclosed; the four cylinders were cast in a solid block; the suspension used two semi-elliptic springs.

Piquette Avenue Plant as it appeared during its occupancy by Ford with a Model N in the foreground

The Model T was very simple to drive, and easy and cheap to repair. It was so cheap at $825 in 1908 ($21,650 today) (the price fell every year) that by the 1920s, a majority of American drivers had learned to drive on the Model T. Because of increasing production efficiency the price bottomed out at $260- the equivalent of around $3600 today.

Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines, which first operated on December 1, 1913; by 1914 these methods were known around the world as Fordism.

Ford Motor Company proudly announced on January 5, 1914 that it would pay a "living wage" of at least US$5 for a day's labor. The move made national news as it constituted double the industry norm—and double the pay of most of Ford’s own employees.

When Henry Ford raised the pay of his auto workers to $5 per day, he didn't do it for altruistic reasons. His factory had one of the highest turnover rates (due to danger of the assembly line and tedium of the work). After the raises, it dropped to the lowest.

In 1914, the production line for Model T Ford cars took only 93 minutes to assemble a car.

Ford assembly line, 1913. The magneto assembly line was the first

Henry Ford allowed injured laborers to continue work from their hospital beds, screwing nuts on small bolts without getting out of bed. It was optional, but allowed employees to receive their normal salary while hospitalized. Ford believed the work to hasten their recovery.

In the early 1920s half the cars in the world were Model T's.

The Model T was initially offered in several colors, including green, bright red, dark blue, brown, maroon and gray  as well as black. The shift to all black was required to speed up production, especially once the moving assembly line ramped up production in 1913.

Black was the only color the Model T came in from 1914 through 1925, because the black paint available at the time was the fastest to dry.

"Any color you like as long as it is black" is one of the most famous quotes attributed to Henry Ford - his retort to customers asking about color choices for the Model T. We do not know whether Ford actually spoke those words. Whether he said it or not, in 1925 he recanted and offered a choice of colors.

On September 25, 1926, the Ford Motor Company instituted a five-day, 40-hour work week for its automotive factory employees. They were one of the first companies in America to adopt this. The policy was extended to Ford’s office workers the following August.

Henry Ford had a "Sociological Department" that would show up at employees' homes unannounced to make sure it was clean and the kids were going to school.

The last Ford Model T rolled off the assembly line on May 31, 1927 after a production run of 15,007,003 vehicles.

1925 Ford "New Model" T Tudor Sedan

The Ford Model A was introduced on December 2, 1927, and it was a major success for Ford Motor Company. It replaced the Model T, which had been in production for 18 years. The Model A was a more modern car than the Model T, and it had a number of features that made it more appealing to consumers. These features included a four-cylinder engine, a standard set of driver controls, and a variety of body styles. It was also the first car with safety glass in the windshield. The Model A was also more expensive than the Model T, but it was still affordable for many Americans. Ford sold nearly 5 million Model A cars during its four-year production run

The Ford River Rouge Complex is a 1,100-acre automobile factory complex located in Dearborn, Michigan, along the Rouge River. Construction began in 1917, and when it was completed in 1928 it had become the largest integrated factory in the world.

Henry Ford once tried to start a colony in the middle of the Brazilian rain forest called "Fordlandia." It was established as a prefabricated industrial town intended to be inhabited by 10,000 people to secure a source of cultivated rubber for the automobile manufacturing operations of the Ford Motor Company. The locals were forced to live a midwestern American lifestyle until they rebelled and chased their managers into the forest. Ford's project failed, and the colony was abandoned in 1934.

The 25,000,000th Ford car rolled off the assembly line on January 18, 1937. Henry Ford observed this significant milestone and was chauffeured in the vehicle by his son, Mr. Edsel Ford, to the company's exhibition building. There the car was proudly displayed alongside other historic models.

The Ford Popular, Britain's first £100 car was introduced in 1939.

In the period from 1937 to 1941, Ford was the only major car manufacturer in the Detroit area that had not recognized any labor union as the collective bargaining representative of employees. At hearings before the National Labor Relations Board Henry Ford was found guilty of repeated violations of the National Labor Relations Act. The findings against him were upheld on appeal to the federal courts.

The Old Ford Motor Factory, built at 351 Upper Bukit Timah Road, Singapore, in 1941, was Ford's first assembly plant in Southeast Asia. On February 15, 1942, it was the site of the historic surrender of the British to the Japanese in World War II, later described by Winston Churchill as the "largest capitulation in British history."

During World War II, the Ford Motor Company was losing so much money that the Roosevelt Administration considered a government takeover of the company in order to ensure continued war production.

Henry Ford patented a plastic automobile on January 13, 1942. It was 30% lighter than a regular car.

During World War II, Ford Motor Company produced a B-24 bomber every 63 minutes.

The Ford Thunderbird began life in February 1953 in direct response to Chevrolet's new sports car, the Corvette. Production of the Thunderbird began the following year with the car beginning sales as a 1955 model on October 22, 1954.

The Ford company went public in 1956 but the Ford family, through special Class B shares, still retain 40 percent voting rights

After turning down 18,000 names, the Ford Motor Company decided to name their new car the "Edsel," in 1956 after Henry Ford's only son.

The Ford Motor Company produced its 50 millionth automobile on March 16, 1958, averaging almost a million cars a year since the company's founding. The 50 millionth was the popular 1958 model of the Ford Thunderbird.

1958 Ford Thunderbird

With the Edsel, The Ford Motor Company had expected to make significant inroads into the market share of both General Motors and Chrysler. However, the Edsel never gained popularity with contemporary American car buyers and sold poorly. On November 19, 1969  Ford announced the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel.

A 1958 Edsel Corsair, registered in Bottrop, Germany photo by Michael Kistinger

Ford almost bought Ferrari in the early 60's, but Enzo Ferrari killed the deal when he learned he wouldn't oversee the racing division anymore. Henry Ford II was so annoyed that he directed his engineers to build a car that would beat Ferrari at Le Mans, which it did from 1966–1969.

Robert McNamara was named president of Ford Motor Co on November 9, 1960, the first non-Ford to serve in that post. A month later, he resigned to join the administration of newly elected John F. Kennedy.

Robert McNamara

The first Ford Mustang rolled off the show room floor on April 15, 1964. Two days later it was introduced to the public at the New York World's Fair.

When a Mustang appeared in the James Bond film Goldfinger in September 1964, it was the first time the car had been used in a movie.

1965 Ford Mustang photographed in Alexandria, Virginia, USA

The 1965 Mustang was the automaker's most successful launch since the Model A.

When Ford introduced the Mustang in 1964, they were expecting to sell about 100,000 a year. Instead, they celebrated the production of its one millionth Mustang, a white convertible, on March 2, 1966.

Ford unveiled the sports saloon, the Capri in 1969.

The very last Ford Thunderbird ever made emerged from a Ford factory in Wixom, Michigan on July 1, 1970.

In 1971 Ford launched a ‘Pinto’ range. The car struggled to sell in Brazil as the word is slang for male genitals.

In 1978, three Indiana teenagers were killed in when their Pinto was involved in a rear-end collision. Ford was indicted on three counts of reckless homicide. Indiana v. Ford was the first time a corporation faced criminal charges for a defective product and charged with murder.

Both David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser in the cop show Starsky & Hutch (1975-79) drove Fords. Hutch had a Galaxie 500 – but it was Starsky’s ‘Striped Tomato’ that had its own fanbase. It was so popular that it played a key role in the 2004 movie.

The Ford Model T was named the most influential car of the 20th century in the 1999 Car of the Century competition, ahead of the BMC Mini, Citroën DS, and Volkswagen Type 1. 

The Ford GT broke the crushing machine used in the “roof crush” safety test because it’s so strong.

Sources Encarta Encyclopedia, Wikipedia

Henry Ford

EARLY LIFE

Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 on a prosperous farm in Greenfield Township, Michigan. His mother, Mary, died when Henry was 13. His father, William, was an Irish immigrant who came across from county Cork during the potato famine.

As a child, Henry was passionate about mechanics, preferring to tinker in his father's shop over doing farm chores.

For eight years Henry attended a one-roomed school in the winter and helped on the family farm in the summer. At his local school only an exceptional mechanical ability was apparent.

Henry's father gave him a pocket watch when he was 13. He made a screw driver out of a knitting needle  and within a year or two, Henry was dismantling and reassembling the timepieces of friends and neighbors dozens of times, gaining the reputation of a watch repairman.

As he grew older, Henry became more and more fascinated by engines and one day he noticed a tractor parked by the side of the road. He studied the mechanism and asked the driver how fast the engine could run. The reply of 200 turns a minute gave Henry the inspiration for the motor car business.

                                                                      CAREER

In 1879, at the age of 16 Ford left home to find work in machine shops. He got a job as an apprentice machinist in Detroit, first with James F. Flower & Bros., and later with the Detroit Dry Dock Co.

Ford earned $2.50 from his first machinist job in Detroit. As his board and lodging was $2.50 a week, he he had to work for four hours every evening for a watchmaker for $2.00 a week to pay his way.

After three years, Ford returned to the family farm, where he worked part-time for the Westinghouse Engine Company becoming adept at operating their portable steam engine, In spare moments he tinkered in a little machine shop that he had set up.

At the age of 21 Ford's father gave him a 40 acre plot in an attempt to get him away from machinery (he expected him to eventually take over the family farm.). Even there Ford set up a sawmill and sold lumber. Eventually he built a small "farm locomotive," a tractor that used an old mowing machine for its chassis and a homemade steam engine for power.

Henry Ford in 1888

In 1891, Ford became an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company. Two years later, he was promoted to chief engineer at the main Detroit Edison Company plant with responsibility for maintaining electric service in the city 24 hours a day.

When Ford explained his idea of a gasoline powered car to Thomas Edison, Edison encouraged Ford that he "had it". Ford claimed later that "No man up to then had given me any encouragement".

Because he was on call at all times, Ford had no regular hours and could experiment to his heart's content. After experimenting in his spare time he built his first self-propelled vehicle. A small one-cylinder gasoline model, which was capable of 25mph., he named it the Ford Quadricycle. He gave it a successful test run on June 4, 1896.

The Quadricycle had four wire wheels that looked like heavy bicycle wheels, was steered with a tiller like a boat, and had only two forward speeds with no reverse.

When Ford's Quadricycle was initially ready to be driven out of his workshop he had overlooked it was too wide to get it out of his doorway. So Ford smashed a hole through the wall with an axe.

Once Ford had maneuvered his Quadcycle out of his workshop he drove it round the streets of Dearborn and Detroit. Fascinated crowds gathered wherever he drove and terrified horses galloped away in panic.

Ford resigned from the Edison Company and founded the Detroit Automobile Company on August 5, 1899. However, the automobiles produced were of a lower quality and higher price than Ford had hoped for. Ultimately, the company was not successful and was dissolved in January 1901

He founded Ford Motor company at Detroit on June 16, 1903, appointing himself chief engineer. Three years later, Ford was appointed President.

The Ford Motor Company was incorporated with a mere $28,000 in cash put up by ordinary citizens. This was because Ford had, in his previous dealings with backers, antagonized the wealthiest men in Detroit.

Ford Motor Company produced the first Model T in 1908. It seated two people and cost at the time a cheap $850. He announced the birth of the Model T  thus "I will build a motor car for the great multitude."

Its introduction revolutionized transportation and American industry and the Model T .(nicknamed the Tin Lizzie) remained in production until 1927 with the car's price falling from $850 to $290.

In 1913 Ford pioneered the moving conveyor belt assembly line to make the Model T.

Ford assembly line, 1913

Ford Motor Company reduced the working day from 9 hours to 8 —becoming one of the first companies in America to adopt the 40-hour work week. Henry Ford had initially lead the movement of shorter working weeks from the entrepreneurial side of things. He (counter intuitively at the time) showed that shorter working hours led to higher productivity.

Ford was an early promoter of aviation, building the Dearborn Inn as the first airport hotel. (The airfield was across the street and is now the site of a Ford Motor Company test track.)

Ford heavily sponsored the Stout Metal Airplane Company, which developed the Ford Tri-Motor, an early airliner.

Ford invented the charcoal briquette with the help of Thomas Edison in 1920. The motor mogul created the briquette from the wood scraps and sawdust from his car factory. E.G. Kingsford bought the invention and put the charcoal briquette into commercial production.

The outbreak of World War II shifted Ford's focus from car production to war materials. On January 13, 1942, he was granted a patent for his method of making cars with plastic bodywork. The car, nicknamed the "Soybean Car,"  was 30% lighter than a traditional metal car and was touted as being safer and more dent-resistant. However, the project never made it past the prototype stage. 

When Ford retired in 1945 Ford Motor Co was worth over $1billion.

Henry Ford on the cover of Time magazine, January 14, 1935

He was the second US billionaire after John D Rockefeller.

Ford never threw away a letter or bill. It took his lawyers two years to sort out the five million documents he'd left after his death.

PERSONAL LIFE

Ford married Clara Bryant in 1888 and initially supported himself by farming and running a sawmill. Clara had grown up on a farm not far from Ford's.

Clara drove an electric car and refused to drive the Ford Model T.

He named his only child Edsel after schoolboy friend Edsel Ruddiman. Edsel was president of Ford Motor Company from 1919 to his death of stomach cancer in 1943.

Ford  had an interest in American folk music, especially square dancing, and frequently sponsored square dance events.

BELIEFS

A Protestant, Ford once proclaimed “I shall live again” when he announced he had been a convert to reincarnation at the age of 26.

The Henry Ford Hospital was founded in 1915 by the car manufacturer. As Ford disliked tobacco, the hospital was one of the first to ban smoking.

Ford visited Europe in 1915-16 in attempt to end World War 1.  He proclaimed "we are going to try to get the boys out of the trenches before Christmas." Three weeks later Ford was back in the USA. "I didn't get much peace" he said " but I learned that Russia is going to be a great market for tractors."

President Woodrow Wilson asked Ford to run as a Democrat for the United States Senate from Michigan in 1918. Although the nation was at war, Ford ran as a peace candidate and a strong supporter of the proposed League of Nations. He was defeated in a close election by the Republican candidate, Truman Newberry, a former United States Secretary of the Navy.

A Chicago Tribune editorial called Ford an "ignorant idealist" because of his opposition to US. involvement in World War I. Ford took out a libel action  and while the jury found for the motor mogul, it awarded him only six cents.

In 1919 Ford became the publisher of the Dearborn Independent, a weekly journal, which at first published anti-Semitic material. After considerable public protest, Ford directed that publication of such articles be discontinued and that a public apology be made to the Jewish people.

His anti Semitic views prevented Ford from pursuing a possible nomination for the American presidency.

Ford was praised in Hitler's Mein Kampf and the future fuhrer kept a life-size portrait of the motor mogul next to his desk.

Henry Ford in 1919

Henry Ford was a proponent of hiring the handicapped. In 1919, more than 20% of his workforce had some form of disability.

Ford habitually washed his hair in water containing rusty razor blades as he believed that rusty water is a hair restorer.

RACING 

In order to attract backers Ford built a racing car and entered it against the top racing driver of 1901, Alexander Winton. At the Gross Pointe Blue Ribbon track in Detroit Ford won by over one mile.

On January 12, 1904 Henry Ford set a land-speed record of 91.37 mph on the frozen surface of Michigan’s Lake St. Clair in his 70 Hp Arrow. As news of his record spread around the US, Ford's new car company garnered a much needed boost in sales.

Henry Ford standing next to driver Barney Oldfield with his car in 1902

Henry Ford was one of the early backers of the Indianapolis 500.

FOOD AND DRINK

An advocate of a healthy diet, Ford campaigned for synthetic milk as he believed cows are too unhygienic.

Ford maintained that eating sugar was tantamount to committing suicide as its sharp crystals cut a person's stomach to shreds.

When he heard that the botanist George Washington Carver ate weed sandwiches every day, Ford decided to do the same.

A teetotaller, Ford declared "Nobody can drink alcohol and smoke without injuring their brains. It is easy for me. I don't like alcohol."

Ford was convinced that the soya bean could be converted into products with commercial value. He once appeared at a convention attempting to promote soya beans by dressing himself with a suit and tie, entirely produced from soya beans.

HOMES

Ford's Fair Lane 1,300-acre estate in Dearborn, Michigan was named after an area in County Cork in Ireland where his adoptive grandfather, Patrick Ahern, was born.

Ford pent his winters at his holiday home at Daytona, on South West Florida next door to his friend and ex employer, Thomas Edison

In the early 1930s Henry Ford visited Stow-On-The Wold in the Cotswold area of England where he saw an old forge and a farm cottage. He proceeded to buy them and hired a local builder, Cox Howman, to take them down and rebuild them in the US. Each stone was marked, boxed and shipped to Dearborn, Michigan, where they were re-erected.

Ford created Greenfield Village at Dearborn, Michigan, a historic village in which the handicraft arts of the past are represented in their national settings.

DEATH AND LEGACY

Ford died on April 7, 1947 of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age 83 at his Dearborn estate.

All Ford plants and dealers were closed on the day of his funeral three days later. Funeral services were held in Detroit's Cathedral Church of St. Paul and he was buried in the city's Ford Cemetery.

Ford grave, Ford Cemetery. By Dwight Burdette -  Wikiprdia commons

Ford left a personal estate of around $600,000,000 at his death. Most of it was left to the Ford Foundation, a non profit organisation, set up by Ford and his son "for scientific, educational, and charitable purposes, all for the public welfare." It subsequently became the richest private foundation in the world.

Ford was named Businessman of the Century in a 1999 poll organised by America's Fortune magazine.

Sources  Daily Mail , Encyclopedia Britannica, Encarta, Faber Book of Anecdotes, Food For Thought by Ed Pearce. 

Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford was born July 13, 1942, at Chicago, Illinois's Swedish Covenant Hospital. His mother, Dorothy was a  former radio actress, and his father, Christopher was an advertising executive and a former actor.

Ford's mother was of entirely Russian Jewish heritage, while his father was of Irish-Catholic and German-Protestant heritage.

Ford graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1960. The actress Karen Black attended the same school (she was three years his senior).

Hillary Clinton attended Maine East from 1961–1964. Though Ford didn't meet the former president's wife at the school,  he later became a close friend and golf partner of Bill Clinton.

Until 1970, he was billed as Harrison J. Ford  to save confusion between him and silent-screen actor Harrison Ford. He actually has no middle name.

Star Wars, Harrison Ford (1977)

Ford worked as a carpenter in Los Angeles before achieving fame in movies, mainly doing home remodelling work. He garnered a reputation as one of the best cabinetmakers in the city, despite having no former training as a carpenter.

While working as a carpenter, Ford became a stagehand for the rock band The Doors.

Ford owned a white-painted ranch house that he built himself in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

He decided to get his ear pierced on a whim, age 55, at Claire's Accessories in Los Angeles.

Ford won his first pilot's licence in the 1990s and regularly flies himself between his New York City and Wyoming homes has gone on to amass a private collection of his own aircraft.

Harrison Ford began dating actress Calista Flockhart after meeting at the 2002 Golden Globes. They married on June 15, 2010, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Ford was filming Cowboys & Aliens. She is his third wife.

Ford and Calista Flockhart at the 2009 Deauville American Film Festival

He has a scar on his chin which he got in 1968 when he tried to buckle up his seat belt while already driving, and lost control of the car.

The 35-year-old Harrison Ford was fitting a door for Francis Ford Coppola when a studio executive, testing actresses for a new film, asked him to help out by reading the lines written for the male lead. The film was Star Wars.

The reason Han Solo was frozen in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back was because George Lucas wasn't sure if Harrison Ford would come back for the next film.

Harrison Ford earned $10,000 for starring in Star Wars: A New Hope and $20,000,000 for starring in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Raiders of the Lost Ark was originally going to have an elaborate fight scene between Indiana Jones and a master swordsman. But Harrison Ford was ill so they just had Indy pull out a gun and shoot him instead.

Indiana Jones was a big Husky dog owned by George Lucas. When coming up with the story the screenwriter just used the name of his dog, although back than it was Indiana Smith and not Jones.

Harrison Ford filmed a cameo as Elliott's headmaster for ET. However the scene was cut because Spielberg considered it too distracting.

Harrison Ford holds the rank of Life Scout in the Boy Scouts of America.

Source Imdb.com

Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr., on July 14, 1913, at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in Omaha, Nebraska, where his parents lived with his paternal grandparents.

His father was Leslie Lynch King Sr., a wool trader and a son of prominent banker Charles Henry King. Sixteen days after Leslie Jr.'s birth, Leslie King Sr. drew a butchers knife on his wife and baby son, prompting her to move out.

According to Ford his biological father had a history of violence against his mother. He first hit her on their honeymoon for smiling at another man.

Dorothy married Gerald Rudolff Ford, a salesman in a family-owned paint and varnish company on February 1, 1916. Leslie was never formally adopted, and he did not legally change his name to Gerald Ford, Jr until December 3, 1935.

Ford was involved in The Boy Scouts of America, and earned that program's highest rank, Eagle Scout. He was the only American president who was an Eagle Scout.

Gerald Ford played football while in college, and, after graduation, was offered positions with both the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers. He declined in favor of taking a coaching (both boxing and football) job at Yale University.

Ford as a center on the University of Michigan football team, 1933

In  1934, Gerald Ford threatened to not play for the Michigan football team because the school would not let his teammate Willis Ward, who was black, play against Georgia Tech, which refused to share the field with a black player. Ward talked Ford out of it and Michigan won.

A natural athlete, Gerald Ford kept up his interest in sports and fitness. Past the age of 60 he still liked to swim daily; and he skied, golfed, and played tennis.

Gerald Ford was a male model during his time between leaving for World War II and graduating from Yale Law. He was in Look magazine and was on the cover of a 1942 issue of Cosmopolitan.

Gerald Ford got engaged to Elizabeth “Betty” Warren when he was campaigning for what would be his first of thirteen terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. Betty was a divorcee and a former John Robert Powers fashion model and dancer in the auxiliary troupe of the Martha Graham Dance Company. The wedding was delayed until shortly before the elections because, Ford wasn't sure how voters might feel about his marrying a divorced ex-dancer. They eventually married on October 15, 1948, at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Gerald and Betty Ford on their wedding day, 1948

Gerald Ford was the only person be US Vice-President and President without having actually been elected to either office. He became Vice President when Spiro Agnew resigned the position, and President when Richard Nixon resigned from that office.

Gerald Ford intended to retire from the US House of Representatives in 1976. Upon being nominated as Vice President he told his wife the Vice Presidency would be "a nice conclusion" to his career.

As president, Ford survived two assassination attempts: the first by a Charles Manson cult member, Lynette Fromme, in September 1975; the second 17 days later by a mentally unstable former FBI informant, Sarah Jane Moore. Both women served more than 30 years before being paroled. These were the only two presidential assassination attempts by women in US history.

Gerald Ford's presidency caused problems for political cartoonists, as he was considered so nondescript they couldn't work out what to caricature

Ford's 895-day presidency remains the shortest of all presidents who did not die in office.

Ford died on December 26, 2006, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, of arteriosclerotic cerebrovascular disease and diffuse arteriosclerosis. When he passed away, Ford had lived longer than any other U.S. president, living 93 years and 165 days (a record since broken by Jimmy Carter).

Betty Ford died of natural causes on July 8, 2011, at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, aged 93. After leaving the White House, the one-time First Lady faced up to her alcohol problem and established the Betty Ford Center for treating addiction.

Betty Ford's official White House portrait, painted in 1977 by Felix de Cossio

Source Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc.

Footballer

Robert Crawford, scorer of the first goal in international football, was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment with hard labor for causing a servant to be flogged to death.

When Andrew Watson made his debut with the Scotland national football team on March 12, 1881, he became the world's first black international football player. He captained the side and Scotland won 6 – 1.

Watson also played for Queen's Park F.C. – then Britain's largest football team – and became their secretary in November 1881. He led the team to several Scottish Cup wins, thus becoming the first black player to win a major competition.

Andrew Watson (top centre) with the Scottish team that played England at Hampden Park 

Dr Robert Mills-Roberts was the goalkeeper of the Preston North End soccer team who remained unbeaten throughout the 1888-89 season. Mills-Roberts assisted quarry workers disabled in accidents by designing a contraption to help them raise their hats in chapel.

Franz Beckenbauer captained West Germany to the 1972 European Championships and the 1974 World Cup. After retiring as a player, he became West Germany's team manager, taking them to victory in the 1990 World Cup. He is the only person both to captain and manage a winning World Cup team.

The Brazilian footballer Carlos Kaiser staged his whole career for 24 years - he could barely kick a ball. During the 1980s, Kaiser signed short time contracts with top Brazilian clubs including Botafogo and Flamengo, stating each time that he was lacking match fitness so that he would spend the first weeks only with physical training where he could shine. At the time he went to train with other players, he would feign a hamstring injury and, by the lack of technology at the time, it was difficult to discover that it was a fake injury.

One time Kaiser was forced to play as the team had no strikers. He was worried he would get exposed, so before the game he started a fight with a fan and as a result got sent off before the game even started.

During center half Dennis Smith's 14 seasons with Stoke City, between 1968-82, he became known for his fearless mentality which led to him sustaining a large number of injuries. These included five broken legs, breaking his nose four times, a cracked ankle, broken collar bone, chipped spine, breaking most of his fingers and toes and needing more than 200 stitches. The sequence saw him named in the Guinness Book of Records as the most injured man in football.

Italian footballer Giuseppe Lorenzo holds the record for the fastest-ever sending off in a professional match; The Bologna man was sent off after just 10 seconds on December 9, 1990 in a match against Parma for hitting an opponent.

Archie Thompson set the world record for goals scored in an international match with 13 on April 11, 2001, as Australia played American Samoa in Coffs Harbour in a qualifier for the 2002 World Cup. Australia won 31-0.

 Archie Thompson Self-published work by Kuwait-Ra'ed Qutena. Wikipedia Commons

After South Korean player, Ahn Jung-hwan scored the goal to eliminate Italy from the 2002 World Cup, his contract was cancelled by Perugia- the Italian club he played for, for "ruining Italian soccer."

Lionel Messi sets a new scoring record for a single European football season in 2012. Messi scored all the goals, including a Spanish league-record 50th goal, to take his season tally to an unprecedented 72 in the 4-0 defeat of rivals Espanyol.

Brazilian goalkeeper Rogério Ceni holds the record for the most appearances for the same club, with 1197 appearances for São Paulo  from July 7, 1993 to October 28, 2015. In addition to his record number of appearances, Ceni also holds the record for most goals scored by a goalkeeper. He scored 129 goals in his career, most of which came from free kicks and penalties. Ceni was a free kick specialist, and he was known for his power and accuracy.

Ali Daei, a former Iranian professional association-football forward, scored 109 goals in 149 international appearances between 1993 and 2006. His final goal came in a 3–2 victory over Costa Rica match on March 1, 2006, He is the all-time top international men's goalscorer. 

Jari Litmanen is the only footballer to have played international football in four separate decades.

Yossi Benayoun is the only to have scored a hat-trick in the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup.

Goalkeeper Brad Friedel is the current holder of the Premier League record for most consecutive appearances with 310, a feat he achieved during spells at Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa, and Tottenham Hotspur. Until he was left out of the Tottenham team on October 7, 2012, the previous Premier League game Friedel missed was Blackburn's last fixtures of the 2003–04 season against Birmingham City, on May 15, 2004.

Brazilian footballer Neymar joined French club Paris Saint-Germain F.C. for a world-record fee of €222 million on August, 2017.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimović are the only two players to have ever scored in every possible minute of a football match.

Polish forward Robert Lewandowski graduated his master’s degree with top marks after writing a thesis about himself, entitled “RL9, Path to Glory.”

After Marcelo Bielsa became manager of Leeds United FC in 2018, he found out that the average fan had to work three hours to pay for a match ticket. He called his players together and made them pick up litter from around the training ground for 3 hours, to appreciate how the fans labored for their passion.

Soccer players run much farther than other sports averaging 7 miles a game, compared with 2.55 miles for Basketball and 1.25 miles for American football.  Midfielders average 9.5 miles and referees average more miles than players.  

Football Match

An account of a 14th century football match stated: "At Shouldham Priory in 1321 one of the canons, playing football, killed another player, a layman, who collided with the canon's sheathed dagger in a tackle."

The first ever inter-club football match took place between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield F.C. at the Sandygate Road ground in Sheffield, England on December 26, 1860. The match report for the game in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph states that the game was played between 16 of Sheffield and 16 of Hallam and Stumperlowe (Stumperlowe being a hamlet half a mile from Sandygate).

In the first-ever final of the FA Cup Wanderers F.C. defeated Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1–0 on March 16, 1872. 2,000 spectators attended the game, which was held at The Oval in Kennington, London.

By Unknown (original creator) Oldelpaso (photo) - Wikipedia Commons

The first official football match programmes were sold at a Queens Park v Wanderers game at Hampden Park, Glasgow on October 9, 1875. The early programs were simple affairs, consisting of a single sheet of paper with the team names, player positions, and other basic information. However, they quickly became popular with fans, and by the late 19th century, they had evolved into more substantial publications, with articles on the teams, the players, and the game itself.

Wikipedia

Arbroath F.C. holds the world record for the largest winning margin in a senior unfixed football match. They won 36-0, in their Scottish Cup match against a scratch team from Aberdeen Bon Accord.  On a wet day on September 12, 1885 at Gayfield, 13-goal John Petrie led the rampant home team, a feat which is still recognized as the highest by one man in a single game.
Meanwhile, 20 miles away, Dundee Harp ran them close by beating Aberdeen Rovers 35-0 on the same day.

The first live radio commentary of a football match anywhere in the world, took place on January 22, 1927 for the game between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury. For the broadcast by the BBC, The Radio Times printed a numbered map of the pitch so the commentator could describe where the ball was — hence the expression: 'And back to square one.'

The First Division match between Leicester City and Arsenal at Filbert Street on April 21, 1930 finished as a 6–6 draw, the highest scoring draw in the history of first class English football. The record still stands today though was matched in a Second Division fixture between Charlton Athletic and Middlesbrough in October 1960.

The game took place five days before Arsenal's FA Cup final against Huddersfield Town and the club rested a number of players. Arsenal's David Halliday scored four goals as Arsenal came back from a half-time scoreline of 3–1 to draw the game 6–6. The Gunners also had a goal disallowed. The match was attended by a crowd of 27,500 people and was described as "a thrilling encounter" by the newspapers of the day.

On July 16, 1950, 173,850 paid spectators packed into the Maracanã stadium, then the world's biggest, for the final game of the 1950 World Cup. Uruguay beat Brazil 2-1, breaking the locals' hearts. The local media dubbed it the Maracanazo (a term still used when a visiting team triumphs). The game holds the world record for the highest attendance at any soccer match, ever.

The first football match to be played under floodlighting was in 1956. It ended up Portsmouth 0 Newcastle 2.

The world's worst soccer riot occurred in 1964 during a Peru v Argentina match in Lima after an unpopular decision by the referee. It ended with 300 fans killed and more than 500 injured.

Nottingham Forest's remarkable record of not having a player sent off for 32 years came to an end on November 27, 1971, during a First Division match against Leeds United. The unfortunate player was Sammy Chapman, who received a red card for an off-ball infraction against Leeds striker Mick Jones. 

The "Disgrace of Gijón" is the name given to a 1982 FIFA World Cup football match played between West Germany and Austria in Gijón, Spain, on June 25, 1982. A win by one or two goals for West Germany would result in both them and Austria qualifying at the expense of Algeria, who had defeated West Germany in the first game. West Germany took the lead after 10 minutes, after which the remaining 80 minutes were characterized by few serious scoring attempts on either side. The game was so bad, the German TV Commentator refused to comment the game at one point, the Austrian TV commentator asked people to change the channel, and Spain's newspaper printed the match in their Crimes Section.

The Scottish Cup 2nd Round football tie between Inverness Thistle and Falkirk in the 1978/1979 season was postponed 29 times because of bad weather.

Major League Soccer kicked off on April 6, 1996 when an overflow crowd of 31,683 packed Spartan Stadium to witness the historic first game. San Jose Clash forward Eric Wynalda scored the league's first goal in a 1-0 victory over D. C. United.

On October 31, 2002 AS Adema beat SO I'Emyrne 149-0. The match between the two Antananarivo, Madagascar teams holds the world record for the highest scoreline in Association football. SO l'Emyrne intentionally lost the game against their arch-rivals AS Adema in protest over refereeing decisions that had gone against them during a four-team playoff tournament. This led them to scoring a torrent of own goals as a protest.

Newport County goalkeeper Tom King scored a wind-assisted  goal on January 19, 2021 in his team's 1–1 League Two draw at Cheltenham Town. Guinness confirmed it set a World Record for longest football goal, with a distance of 96.01 metres (105 yd), a record previously held, since November 2013, by Asmir Begović. 

The Isles of Scilly Football League is the official football league for the Isles of Scilly. The football league is reportedly the smallest in the world, with only two clubs Garrison Gunners and the Woolpack Wanderers, which play against each other every Sunday.

On average, football (soccer) players run as far as 9.5 miles in a single match.

Football International

The first-ever international football match took place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England on November 30, 1872. The match finished in a 0–0 draw and was watched by 4,000 spectators.

Illustrations of the first international at Hamilton Crescent, by William Ralston Wikipedia Commons

The world governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), was formed in Paris on May 21, 1904. British football remained aloof with England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland {Northern Ireland from 1920} all staying away.

France defeated Mexico 4-1 and the US beat Belgium 3-0 in the first-ever World Cup football matches played on July 13, 1930 in Uruguay.

Uruguay defeated Argentina, 4–2, in front of a home crowd of 93,0000 at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo on July 30, 1930 to win the first Football World Cup.

Uruguay also won the Football World Cup in 1950. It is the smallest country by population to win a soccer World Cup.

The so-called Battle of Santiago took place during the football World Cup on June 2, 1962. The game between hosts Chile and Italy became so violent that police were called onto the field by English referee Ken Aston to escort players who had been sent off.

The biggest crowd for a European Championship fixture was Scotland versus England in 1968 which was attended by 130,711 fans.

In a qualifying match for the 2002 FIFA World Cup on April 11, 2001, Australia set a world record for the largest victory in an international football match, defeating American Samoa 31–0. American Samoa had 19 players out because of passport issues and the under-20 team replacements unavailable due to school exams. As a result they only fielded one regular player.

The score was originally reported as 32-0 as the scorekeepers lost count.

Dejan Stankovic is the only player who has represented three different national teams in the Fifa World Cup: Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro and Serbia.

Eidur Gudjohnson is the only player to come on in an international game as a substitute for his own father, Arnór, in a friendly vs Estonia.

In Mexico's 2002 World Cup squad, numbers 2,3 and 4 were Gabriel, Garcia and Marquez.

Brazil have played Norway four times but they have never beaten them.

The city of Lusail, host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Final game, does not exist yet.