[SirAlec]

May 2nd 1918
The General Motors acquired the Chevrolet Motor Company for $32 million in GM stock. This is quite an interesting story. The deal was actually a merger engineered by William Durant rather than a buyout. The original founder of GM, Durant had been forced out of the company by stockholders who had disapproved of Durant's increasingly reckless policies to run the company. Durant after being kicked out of GM started Chevrolet with Swiss racer Louis Chevrolet and managed to make the company a successful competitor in a relatively short period of time. Still the owner of a considerable portion of GM stock, Durant began to purchase more stock in GM as his profits from Chevrolet allowed. In a final move to regain control of the company he founded, Durant offered GM stockholders five shares of Chevrolet stock for every one share of GM stock. Though GM stock prices were exorbitantly high, the market interest in Chevrolet made the five-for-one trade irresistible to GM shareholders. With the sale, Durant regained control of GM.

May 2nd 1972
Buddy Baker became the first stock car driver to finish a 500-mile race in less than three hours en route to winning the Winston Select 500 at the Alabama International Motor Speedway in Talladega, Alabama. He also broke the 200mph barrier two years ago on the same track.