Happy 100th Birthday, Soichira Honda!

Posted at 8:54 AM on November 17, 2006 by John Birge

Soichira Honda was born 100 years ago today.

He was an ingenious child. Once he took a pedal from his father's bicycle repair shop, and made a rubber stamp to forge his family's seal on bad report cards. But any failure he might have had at school didn't prevent success in life. From bicycles, he turned his attention to motorcycles, then automobiles. Today, Honda Motor Company also makes robots, jets, ATVs, boats, generators, and lawn mowers. Honda is the largest engine-maker in the world, building 14 million internal combustion engines each year, to the tune of $84 billion annually.

Here is a fitting musical tribute to Soichira Honda! (note the announcer at the end, btw).