Page 53 - AAA Magazine – AAA Ohio Auto Club – November 2018

1966
AAA membership reaches 10 million.
The organization helps draft the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, setting safety standards for automobiles, tires and equipment.
AAA also drafts the Highway Safety Act, specifying standards for motor vehicle inspection and registration; motorcycle safety; driver education; driver licensing; traffic courts; highway design, construction and maintenance; and traffic control devices.
It also hosts the Congress & General Assembly of the Alliance Internationale de Tourism, an international organization of auto clubs. It is the first time in AIT’s 68-year history that a meeting is held in the U.S.
AAA also develops programs for educational television and begins inspections of privately owned campgrounds.
At this time in history: The first successful implantation of an artificial heart in a human is performed.
1967
AAA cooperates with the U.S. Department of Justice in the development of a National Auto Theft Campaign, a public education program to reduce car thefts. It also begins providing traveler’s checks in a national program with First National Citibank; the checks bear the AAA imprint. This is the first instance of such an arrangement between a bank and a private organization.
The Automobile Club of Michigan begins its Bring ’Em Back Alive program aimed at making holidays safer. The program is adopted by other clubs and becomes a national initiative in 1968.
The Auto Club of Missouri opens the association’s first automotive diagnostic center designed to troubleshoot car problems.
At this time in history: Three U.S. astronauts are killed in an Apollo spacecraft fire during a simulated launch. Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first black U.S. Supreme Court justice.
1968
AAA initiates its big trucks campaign and uses newspaper advertising to help defeat a bill that would have increased size and weight limits on trucks. It also publishes its first Citibook (New York City) and ski maps.
At this time in history: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is slain in Memphis, Tennessee. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated. North Korea seizes the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo and holds 83 sailors as spies.
1969
The organization founds the AAA Life Insurance Co. and signs an agreement with International Reservation Corp. for a nationwide computer reservation system linking a network of hotels, motels and car rental agencies.
It also launches DWI Counterattack, a rehabilitation program for motorists convicted of driving while intoxicated.
At this time in history: Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated 37th president of the United States. Apollo 11 astronauts take man’s first walk on the moon.
1970
AAA establishes the Environmental Affairs department, which is designed to define environmental problems as they relate to motoring and suggest solutions. It also publishes four regional European Travel Guides.
It also creates a new strip map system. Four-page, fold-over maps about the size of the current strip maps are produced, reducing the total number of maps from 1,700 to 600.
At this time in history: Rhodesia severs its last ties with the British Crown and declares itself a racially segregated republic. Four students at Kent State University in Ohio are slain by National Guardsmen at a demonstration protesting the April 30 incursion into Cambodia by the U.S.
Get to know the history and path ahead of one of the world’s largest membership organizations.
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