A car appears on Estonia’s streets for the first time in history

The first known car to be presented in Estonia appeared on Tallinn’s Kopli Street on Sept. 5, 1896, according to the article. It was a Benz Velo, although the possibility that cars had been seen in Estonia earlier cannot be ruled out.

The Benz Velo became the world’s first car produced in substantial numbers. Benz built 67 of the models in 1894, 134 the following year and 1,200 by the time production ended in 1902. The first version had a 1-liter engine producing 1.5 horsepower. Later models reached 3 horsepower, while the car’s top speed was 20 kilometers per hour.

The article also recalls other Sept. 5 events. In Estonia, these include the completion of Germany’s occupation of mainland Estonia in 1941, singer Georg Ots’s death in 1975, the launch of Baltika’s Monton fashion brand in 2002 and the abduction of Estonian security officer Eston Kohver near the Estonian-Russian border in 2014. It also lists international events, including the birth of Louis XIV, the start of the First Opium War, the births of Werner Heisenberg and Freddie Mercury, and the signing of the first Minsk agreement in 2014.