Description : Olds Motor Vehicle Company, Inc., the oldest unit of General Motors Corporation, is organized by Ransom E. Olds with capital of $50,000 (5,000 shares of stock at $10 per share) and the first Oldsmobile is produced.

Olds Motor Vehicle and Olds Gasoline Engine Works of Lansing merge to form Olds Motor Works. This new company is incorporated on May 8, 1899 with $500,000 capital. The first factory specifically for automobile manufacture in the United States is built by Olds in Detroit on Jefferson Avenue East.

In Germany, Adam Opel's first motorcar, the "Opel-Patent-Motorwagen System Lutzmann," is built.