TIMELINE: Kenosha, Wisconsin in auto history

(Reuters) - Kenosha, Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan has a long history in automotive history that will die if a Chrysler engine plant is shut as planned next year. For details, double click: ID:nN08373824

Kenosha claims major innovations in auto history including the steering wheel, the seat belt, and the muscle car.

It was in Kenosha in 1902 that Thomas Jeffrey made a mass-assembly automobile, the Rambler, a year ahead of Henry Ford.

Kenosha was also instrumental in the history of worker rights. Auto workers in Kenosha unionized in 1933, two years before the United Auto Workers was formed.

Kenosha's economy was once dominated by making cars. There were two major assembly plants, one on the lake that was shut two decades ago, and one a mile inland that operates today in a muted manner from the days when workers made Nash, American Motors, Renault and finally Chrysler cars there.

Kenosha, which has about 100,000 residents, is officially in the Chicago metropolitan area and claims to be the northernmost suburb of Chicago even though it is closer to Milwaukee (about 30 miles) than Chicago (about 55 miles).

Here is a list of some of the major developments in automobile history in Kenosha:

1900 - A bicycle maker from Chicago, Thomas Jeffrey, buys a factory from the Sterling Bicycle Company. He sees little future in making bicycles and decides to act on his automobile design experiments.

1902 - Jeffrey produces the Rambler, the second mass-assembly auto made, a year after Oldsmobile and a year ahead of Ford. Sales in 1902 were 1,500 vehicles, a sixth of the automobiles sold in the United States.

1910 - Jeffrey dies, and his son Charles takes over as head of the company.

1915 - There are more than 450 automakers in the United States, and Kenosha's Thomas B. Jeffrey Company is easily in the top 10. Sales peaked in 1914 at 13,513 vehicles.

1916 - The head of General Motors, Charles Nash, buys the company for $5 million and renames it Nash Motors.

1933 - Emboldened by federal law allowing works the right to organize, Nash Motors workers formed an American Federation of Labor affiliate. Nash said he'd throw the keys to the lakeside plant in Lake Michigan before he would bargain with a union. He eventually changed his mind, under pressure of federal officials.

1935 - Nash workers join the United Auto Workers union, which forms in Detroit in May.

1937 - Nash Motors mergers with appliance producer Kelvinator.

1942 to 1945 - Nash Motors makes aircraft engines in Kenosha for the U.S. military in World War II.