Happy National Odometer Day!

May 12 is National Odometer Day! Sounds kind of silly, but we would be really lost if we didn't have an odometer!

For those of you who don't know what an odometer is, it is an instrument that indicates the distance traveled by your vehicle. It can be both electronic, mechanical or both!

Did you know that the word odometer is derived from the Greek words hodos - meaning path or gateway and metron - meaning measure.

In some countries, an odometer is called a Mileometer, Milometer or Tripometer!

An odometer developed by Benjamin Franklin

We think odometers were developed when cars were made, but actually they were first developed in the 1600s for wagons and horse-drawn vehicles in order to measure the distance traveled.

Benjamin Franklin developed an odometer in the mid 1700s while he was developing the postal service. Honestly, what didn't he think of?!

With that said, the first odometer for automobiles appeared in 1903 and was patented as the Auto-Meter.

Victory Ford in Dyersville, Iowa has a sorting feature where you can sort vehicles from lowest to highest odometer reading. Click here to check it out!

Looking to find out what other days are fun National Holidays? Check out Nationalholidaycalendar.com!