1879 CE: HENRY FORD, 16, SCHOOL DROPOUT

–of a suburban Detroit school, walks to the city to find work.

He finds work as an apprentice machinist.

Twenty nine years down the road in 1908, Henry Ford’s Ford Motor Company would introduce the Model T car in October, 1908. Sticker price: $825

More than 15 million Model Ts were manufactured. (That historic record was surpassed by the Volkswagen Beetle 93 years later on February 17, 1972)