The Mercedes brand is celebrating its hundreth anniversary this year. What are some of the high points of its rich history?
   
   
    1889 Mercedes – a Spanish girls’ name meaning ‘grace’ – was the name of the daughter born in 1889 to the Austrian businessman, Emil Jellinek.
   
    1898 Daimler “Phoenix” cars, with their front–mounted 8 hp engines, were the world’s first road vehicles with four-cylinder engines.
   
    1900 The first ‘Mercedes’, developed by Wilhelm Maybach, has a pressed-steel frame, high-performance engine and honeycomb radiator and is regarded today as the first modern automobile.
   
    1924 Former rivals, DMG and Benz & Cie., formed a syndicate in 1924 in order to standardize design and production, forming Daimler-Benz AG.
   
    1939 New, super-charged Daimler engines in Nazi fighters outperform British Hurricane and Spitfire aircraft.
   
    1961 In addition to being equipped with a four-speed automatic transmission and newly developed power steering, the 300 SE was the first Mercedes-Benz car with air suspension.
   
    1974 The 240 D 3.0 was the world's first production car with five-cylinder diesel engine. The latter generated an output as high as 80 hp from three liters.
   
    1984 Benz pioneers the development of side and driver-side airbags, later to be standard on all vehicles.