jan 1, 1901 - First motorized bikes produced in a shed: Later becomes Harley-Davidson

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In about 1901, two benchmates at a North Milwaukee bicycle factory, William Harley and Arthur Davidson, began to work on plans for a motorized bicycle. Two of Arthur's brothers took an interest, and in 1903 the Davidsons' father, a cabinetmaker by trade, built a ten-by-fifteen-foot shed behind the family's home at Thirty-Eighth Street and Highland Avenue. The young men finished three motorcycles during their first full year in business. By 1917 they had moved into a state-of-the-art factory complex just down the hill on Juneau Avenue, and the Harley-Davidson Motor Company was turning out 18,000 cycles a year.

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