By: HISTORY.com Editors

John Froelich, inventor of the gas-powered tractor, is born

Published: January 27, 2010Last Updated: May 27, 2025

John Froelich, the inventor of the first internal-combustion traction motor, or tractor, is born on November 24, 1849, in Iowa.

At the end of the 19th century, Froelich operated a grain elevator and mobile threshing service: Every year at harvest time, he dragged a crew of hired hands and a heavy steam-powered thresher through Iowa and the Dakotas, threshing farmers’ crops for a fee. His machine was bulky, hard to transport and expensive to use, and it was also dangerous: One spark from the boiler on a windy day could set the whole prairie afire. So, in 1890, Froelich decided to try something new: Instead of that cumbersome, hazardous steam engine, he and his blacksmith mounted a one-cylinder gasoline engine on his steam engine’s running gear and set off for a nearby field to see if it worked.

It did: Froelich’s tractor chugged along safely at three miles per hour. But the real test came when Froelich and his team took their new machine out on their annual threshing tour, and it was a success there, too: Using just 26 gallons of gas, they threshed more than a thousand bushels of grain every day (72,000 bushels in all). What’s more, they did it without starting a single fire.

In 1894, Froelich and eight investors formed the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company. They built four prototype tractors and sold two (though both were soon returned). To make money, the company branched out into stationary engines (its first one powered a printing press at the Waterloo Courier newspaper). Froelich was more interested in farming equipment than engines more generally, however, and he left the company in 1895.

Waterloo kept working on its tractor designs, but between 1896 and 1914 it sold just 20 tractors in all. In 1914, the company introduced its first Waterloo Boy Model “R” single-speed tractor, which sold very well: 118 in 1914 alone. The next year, its two-speed Model “N” was even more successful. In 1918, the John Deere plow-manufacturing company bought Waterloo for $2,350,000.

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1807

Mohawk Chief Thayendanegea dies

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1859

“Origin of Species” is published

The groundbreaking scientific work by British naturalist Charles Darwin is published in England. "On the Origin of Species" set forth Darwin’s theory that organisms gradually evolve through a process he called “natural selection.”

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1863

Battle of Lookout Mountain

On November 24, 1863, Union troops capture Lookout Mountain southwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee, as they begin to break the Confederate siege of the city. In the “battle above the clouds,” the Yankees scaled the slopes of the mountain on the periphery of the Chattanooga lines. For nearly two months following the Battle of Chickamauga, the […]

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1928

The first federal prison for women opens in West Virginia

The Federal Industrial Institution for Women, the first women’s federal prison, officially opens in Alderson, West Virginia. All women serving federal sentences of more than a year were to be brought here. Run by Dr. Mary B. Harris, the prison’s buildings, each named after social reformers, sat atop 500 acres. One judge described the prison […]

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1932

The FBI Crime Lab opens its doors for business

The crime lab that is now referred to as the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory officially opens in Washington, D.C., on November 24, 1932. The lab was initially operated out of a single room and had only one full-time employee, Agent Charles Appel. Agent Appel began with a borrowed microscope and a pseudo-scientific device called […]

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1947

“Hollywood Ten″ cited for contempt of Congress

The House of Representatives votes 346 to 17 to approve citations of contempt against 10 Hollywood writers, directors, and producers. These men had refused to cooperate at hearings dealing with communism in the movie industry held by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The “Hollywood Ten,” as the men were known, are sentenced to one year in […]

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1960

Wilt Chamberlain sets NBA rebounds record

On November 24, 1960, Philadelphia Warrior Wilt Chamberlain snags 55 rebounds in a game against the Boston Celtics and sets an NBA record for the most rebounds in a single game. The seven-foot-one-inch Chamberlain—often called “Wilt the Stilt,” a nickname he detested, or “The Big Dipper,” because he was so tall that he had to […]

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1963

Jack Ruby kills Lee Harvey Oswald

At 12:20 p.m. EST, in the basement of the Dallas police station, Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy, is shot to death by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner. On November 22, President Kennedy was fatally shot while riding in an open-car motorcade through the streets of downtown Dallas. Less […]

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1971

Hijacker and criminal mastermind D.B. Cooper parachutes out of plane

A hijacker who became known as D.B. Cooper parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 into a raging thunderstorm over Washington State. He had $200,000 in ransom money in his possession. His brazen crime still stands as one of the most mysterious in history. Cooper commandeered the aircraft shortly after takeoff, showing a flight attendant something […]

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1974

“Lucy” fossils discovered

On November 24, 1974, the fossils of an early human ancestor are discovered in northeastern Ethiopia. Soon nicknamed “Lucy,” the remains showed that human species were walking upright over three millions years ago. The groundbreaking discovery was made by anthropology professor Donald Johanson and his research assistant Tom Gray at the Hadar paleontological site in northeastern […]

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1991

Freddie Mercury succumbs to AIDS

On November 24, 1991, Freddie Mercury, British rock superstar and frontman for the band Queen, died from bronchial pneumonia caused by AIDS. A virtuoso vocalist known for his flamboyant style and remarkable four-octave vocal range, Mercury announced his AIDS diagnosis to the public just one day before his death, despite knowing his status—and fending off […]

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1999

Ferry sinks in Yellow Sea, killing hundreds

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2017

Terrorists attack mosque in Sinai, Egypt

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