Highlights of GM's 100-year history; Celebrities of General Motors

1908-29: THE FORMATIVE YEARS

Sept. 16, 1908 - General Motors Company founded by William C. Durant.

1908: Under Billy Durant, General Motors Corp. is organized on Sept. 16, incorporating the 5-year-old Buick Motor Co. Oldsmobile joins soon.

1909: GM acquires interest in Oakland Motor Car Co. (known today as Pontiac), Cadillac, AC Spark Plug and Rapid Motor Vehicle Co. (known today as GMC).

1911: Durant is ousted from GM and starts another car company called Chevrolet with former Buick race car driver Louis Chevrolet.

1912: Cadillac makes the electric self-starter a standard feature on cars, eliminating the injuries that occurred from crank starters.

1915: Durant regains control of GM. GM acquires a stake in Chevrolet.

1917: Henry Leland, the founder of Cadillac, leaves GM to form the Lincoln Motor Co. (Ford Motor Co. bought Lincoln out of bankruptcy in 1922.)

1920: GM establishes a research department headed by Charles (Boss) Kettering, the inventor of the electric cash register and founder of Dayton Electric Laboratories, or Delco.

1923: Named president and CEO in May, Alfred P. Sloan Jr. articulates GM's product strategy ("a car for every purse and purpose") and management philosophy ("decentralized operations with coordinated control").

1929: GM acquires 80% of Adam Opel AG.