June 30: The first Corvette rolled off the line on this date in 1953

While GM design guru Harley Earl gets proper credit for being the father of the Corvette, the first car that left the Flint factory on this date in 1953 had many hands in its existence. Start with the Jaguar XK120, the car that inspired Earl to pitch a true American sports car (one with the same wheelbase as the Jag.) Several designers crafted the show car for the Motorama in January 1953, including Henry Lauve and Carl Renner. And it was a Chevy PR exec, Myron Scott, who famously came up with the name based on a type of fast naval ship from World War II. (There was also the notion that it could be a Cadillac instead of a Chevy, an urge that GM didn't scratch for 50 years.) Only 300 Vettes would be built in 1953, all six-cylinder convertibles, all a little underpowered for their mission, but the true believers kept at it — although the factory line runs a little faster today, as this rare home movie footage of the Corvette assembly in 1953 demonstrates: