1902 - Twelve investors including Henry Ford and John and Horace Dodge (later founders of the Dodge Brothers Motor Vehicle Company) invest in a factory to create automobiles. The Henry Ford Company becomes the Cadillac Motor Company.

1903 - Ford launches its first vehicle, the Model A

1903 - Ford was founded on the 16th of June, 1903 by Henry Ford. Ford was 40 years old when he started his motor company.

1904 - Ford becomes international with Ford of Canada

1907 - Ford launches the Model K and the Model S, both expensive compared to their competitors and produced at a rate of only a few per day with groups of people working on each car. The blue oval trademark was also introduced.

1908 - The famous Ford Model T vehicle began production. It was a revolutionary automobile and one of the first "affordable" vehicles to be produced, mostly because of Henry Ford's innovative assembly line set up which allowed him to mass produce cars for the first time.

1909 - Ford's first year of full production on the Model T, building approximately 18,000 cars and beginning to use an assembly line technique.

1911 - International branches of Ford open in England and France.

1913 - Ford finalizes his car assembly line on the Model T in order to create mass production of an automobile. This is also the world's first moving assembly line production. Ford's plants have an output of 202,667 cars.

1914 - Ford increases employee pay which decreases employee turnover, increases moral and productivity and further decreases the price of the Ford automobile.

1915 - Henry Ford goes on a peace mission to Europe to try and end World War I.

1919 - Edsel Ford, Henry's son, takes over as president of the company. 50% of all the cars in the US are Fords.

1927 - Ford begins using four wheel brakes on its cars. The company also begins issuing credit to consumers and finally retires the Model T , having produced 15 million.

1922 - Ford created a luxury devision of the company with a brand called Lincoln Motor Company, named after the American president Abraham Lincoln.

1929 - The Soviet Union agrees to build auto factories within its borders using Ford's designs and parts but under a Soviet name. These autos are later used as military vehicles.

1932 - Ford creates the first one-piece cast V8 block engine.

1939 - Nazis seize Ford factories in Germany, using the Ford assembly line to promote their war effort.

1939 - The Mercury brand of cars was created to serve the middle classes or mid range priced vehicles.

1941 - The Willow Run plant is built using the Ford standards of mass production to build B-24 Liberator aircraft at a rate of one an hour.

1943 - Willow Run goes into action, producing B-24 airplanes for WWII. Edsel Ford also dies of cancer, forcing Henry Ford to resume control over company operations.

1945 - Henry Ford II, Henry Ford's oldest grandson, becomes the new president of Ford Motor Company.

1947 - Henry Ford dies and approximately 7 million people mourn his passing.

1948 - Ford F-1 truck is introduced to the public.

1954 - Ford introduces the Thunderbird.

1956 - The Ford Company goes on the market with publicly traded stocks. The Ford family still owns 40% of the company stocks.

1964 - Ford creates the Ford Mustang and the Ford GT40.

1985 - The Ford Taurus and the Ford Aerostar, Ford's first minivan, are introduced to the market

1989 - Ford acquires the Jaguar brand of cars.

1998 - Volvo Group sold its passenger vehicles arm of the business to focus on commercial vehicles. Ford's luxury arm Premier Automotive Group bought Volvo Cars for $6.45 billion USD.

1999 - Ford acquires the Volvo car division from Volvo.

2000 - Ford acquires the Land Rover brand from BMW.

2007 - Ford sells the famous British high performance car Aston Martin.

2008 - Ford sells the Land Rover and Jaguar divisions to Tata Motors in an attempt to downsize during a rough economy.

2010 - Ford Motor Company sold the Volvo Cars company to the Chinese company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (makers of Geely Automobile).