General Motors Timeline

Founded on September 16, 1908, General Motors has played a central role in the automotive world for over a century, being responsible for numerous industry firsts and technological advancements. Surviving wars, recessions, strikes, controversies, and bankruptcy, the enterprise is not the giant it used to be anymore, but it is still going strong. As today marks GM’s 109th anniversary, let’s take a brief look into the vast history of the company.

The General Motors Timeline illustrates some of the most important milestones in the long life of the automaker, including its incorporation, major acquisitions and innovations, as well as less fortunate events, such as the 2009 Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The history of GM started when William C. Durant, the largest US carriage maker of the early 20th century, saw an opportunity in improving Buick, a local car company with large debts and few sales.

Quite surprisingly, Durant originally had a strong aversion to “gas-powered horseless carriages,” considering them dangerous, loud and smelly. Soon after deciding to invest in Buick, the businessman formed General Motors as a holding company to merge the automaker with other car manufacturers, thus giving birth to the titan that would dominate the American auto industry for decades.

The General Motors chronology was built in PowerPoint using the Office Timeline add-in, a simple, familiar tool that enables users to quickly create impressive timelines, Gantt charts and other similar visuals. To edit the graphic or create your own, we recommend using the Plus edition of the add-in, which comes with powerful time-saving features and a large variety of customization options.

Download the General Motors Timeline for PowerPoint here.