The Tool Desk
Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →On September 15, 2008, Ford used selected office lights at its Dearborn headquarters to spell “HAPPY 100 GM,” a greeting for General Motors’ centennial the next day. GM’s incorporation date was September 16, 1908.
What Ford displayed
Contemporary accounts say Ford arranged lights in its Dearborn headquarters to show “HAPPY 100 GM.” One report describes selected offices being lit while others were left dark; another says the message appeared after sunset as part of a small centennial ceremony. The display details come from contemporary secondary reporting, rather than a Ford archival statement or a named spokesperson’s explanation. Response.jp; Le Blog Auto.
When the greeting appeared—and why the date mattered
The contemporary reports place the display on September 15, 2008, the eve of GM’s anniversary. Motor Trend identifies September 16, 1908, as the incorporation date of General Motors Company; the centennial therefore fell on September 16, 2008. Motor Trend.
A September 2008 statement in the Congressional Record also commemorated GM’s centennial and described William C. Durant’s role in founding the company in Flint, Michigan, and its early growth through Buick and other acquisitions. That record is a senator’s remarks, not a corporate archival record, and it does not verify how Ford arranged the lights. Congressional Record.
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What the gesture does—and does not—tell us
It is fair to describe the display as a birthday greeting or centennial salute from Ford to GM. The available accounts do not include a direct Ford quotation explaining the gesture or establish a more detailed official rationale, so claims about its intended meaning beyond the greeting would go beyond the evidence.
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