Lagonda is a British luxury car marque established in 1906, owned by Aston Martin since 1947. The trade-name has not had a continuous commercial existence, being dormant for several times, most from 1995 to 2008 and 2010 to 2013; the Lagonda company was founded in 1906 in the UK in Staines, Middlesex, by an American, Wilbur Gunn, a former opera singer. He worked as a speed boat and motorcycle engineer in Staines, he named the company after the Shawnee settlement "Lagonda" in modern-day Springfield, the town of his birth. This is a glacially eroded limestone gorge of much beauty; the area played a major role in the Treaty of Easton and the aligning of the Shawnee tribe with the British during the French and Indian War. He had built motorcycles on a small scale in the garden of his house in Staines with reasonable success, including a win on the 1905 London–Edinburgh trial. In 1907 he launched his first car, the 20 hp, six-cylinder Torpedo, which he used to win the Moscow–St. Petersburg trial of 1910.

This success produced a healthy order for exports to Russia which continued until 1914. In 1913 Lagonda introduced an advanced small car, the 11.1, with a four-cylinder 1,099 cc engine, which, by 1914, featured a panhard rod and a rivetted unibody body and the first fly-off handbrake. The ratchet control button on the end of a fly-off handbrake is designed to work in the opposite way to what is expected. If the lever is lifted or pulled back to the "on" position, on letting go it releases unless the end button is pressed and held in place before letting go of the lever. Once set, the brake is released by lifting the handbrake lever in the setting direction; this mechanism was traditionally fitted to sports cars to facilitate a racing get-away, such as at traffic lights. It can be used to help the back wheels to slide, without the worry of the ratchet leaving the brake on. During the First World War Lagonda made artillery shells. After the end of the war the 11.1 continued with a larger, 1,400 cc, engine and standard electric lighting as the 11.9 until 1923 and the updated 12 until 1926.

Following Wilbur Gunn's death in 1920, three existing directors headed by Colin Parbury took charge. The first of the company's sports models was launched in 1925 as the 14/60 with a twin-cam 1,954 cc four-cylinder engine and hemispherical combustion chambers; the car was designed by Arthur Davidson. A higher output engine came in 1927 with the two-litre Speed model which could be had supercharged in 1930. A lengthened chassis version, the 16/65, with a six-cylinder 2.4-litre engine, was available from 1926 to 1930. Their final car of the 1920s was the three-litre using a 2,931 cc six-cylinder engine; this continued until 1933 when the engine grew to 3,181 cc and was available with a complex eight-speed Maybach transmission as the Selector Special. A new model for 1933 was the 16–80 using a two-litre Crossley engine with pre-selector gearbox from 1934. A new small car, the Rapier came along in 1934 with pre-selector gearbox; this lasted until 1935 but more were made until 1938 by a separate company, D. Napier & Son of Hammersmith, London.

At the other extreme was the near 100 mph 4.5-litre M45 with a Meadows-supplied six-cylinder, 4,467 cc, engine. A true sporting version, the M45R Rapide, with a tuned M45 engine and a shorter chassis, achieved a controversial Le Mans victory in 1935. In 1935 the three-litre grew to a 3.5-litre. All was not well financially and the receiver was called in 1935, but the company was bought by Alan P. Good, who just outbid Rolls-Royce, he persuaded W. O. Bentley to leave Rolls-Royce and join Lagonda as designer along with many of his racing department staff; the 4.5-litre range now became the LG45 with lower but heavier bodies and available in LG45R Rapide form. The LG45 came in three versions known as Sanction 1, 2 and 3 each with more Bentley touches to the engine. In 1938 the LG6, with independent front suspension by torsion bar and hydraulic brakes, came in. Along with ex-Rolls Royce employees, Stuart Tresillian and Charles Sewell, design expert Frank Feeley, Bentley hid distaste for the primitive conditions of Lagonda's factory, got to work on the new engine, to become his masterpiece, the V-12, launched in 1937.

The 4,480 cc engine delivered 180 bhp and was said to be capable of going from 7 to 105 mph in top gear and to rev to 5,000 rpm. The car was exhibited at the 1939 New York Motor Show: "The highest price car in the show this year is tagged $8,900, it is a Lagonda, known as the "Rapide" model, imported from England. The power plant is a twelve-cylinder V engine developing 200 horsepower." Richard Watney was managing director of Lagonda at the start of the Second World War: He was Rootes' retail sales manager for the London area until 1935, when he became managing director of Lagonda, Ltd. He is a production expert, who during the war organised and controlled for Lagonda one of the largest British gun production plants, plants which produced 50,000 25 lb shells a day. Watney developed and produced the "Crocodile" and "Wasp" flame-throwing equipment for armoured vehicles." Watney finished second at Le Mans in 1930 driving a Bentley. He returned to Rootes in 1946, was posted to Australia, he was killed in a car accident in Melbourne in 1949.

In 1947, the company was taken over by David Brown and moved in with Aston Martin, which he had bought, in Feltham, Middlesex. The old Staines works at Egham Hythe passed to Petters Limited, in which A. P. Good had acquired the controlling interest. Production restarted with the last prototypes from Bentley, the 1948 2

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in 1840. 9 March – The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is completed from Wilmington to Weldon, North Carolina. At 161.5 miles, it is the world's longest railroad at this time. April – The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad is completed from Raleigh to near Weldon, North Carolina. 11 May – The London and South Western Railway opens its original main line throughout to Southampton. 1 July - The Midland Counties Railway of England opens its line from Derby and Nottingham via Leicester to a junction with the London and Birmingham Railway at Rugby. 12 August – The Glasgow, Paisley and Ayr Railway opened between Glasgow Bridge Street railway station and Ayr, the first inter-urban railroad in Scotland. 17 August – The first railroad built in Milan, the Milan and Monza Rail Road opens for service. 8 October – Formal opening of first section of the Taff Vale Railway, the first steam-worked passenger railway in Wales, from Cardiff Docks to Navigation House.

Public service begins the following day. 21 December – Manchester and Birmingham Railway in England completes Stockport Viaduct. It is one of the largest brick structures in Europe. By July – August Borsig completes the first steam locomotive built in Germany. Mordecai W. Jackson and George Mack partner to create a farm implement manufacturing company that will become Jackson and Woodin Manufacturing Company, one of the constituent companies of American Car and Foundry Company. January 8 – William Dean, Chief Mechanical Engineer of Great Western Railway of England 1877–1902. January 29 – Henry H. Rogers, American financier who helped finance and build the Virginian Railway. February 7 – Samuel W. Fordyce, president of St. Louis and Texas Railway 1886–1889, St. Louis Southwestern Railway 1890–1898, Kansas City Southern Railway 1900. March 31 – Benjamin Baker, British civil engineer, designer of the Forth Railway Bridge. April – William Sykes, English railway signalling engineer. June 6 – William Dudley Chipley, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 1873–1876.

June 14 – William F. Nast, president of the Atchison and Santa Fe Railway September 1868. June 27 – Alpheus Beede Stickney, first president of Chicago Great Western Railway 1884–1909. August 23 – Brayton Ives, president of Northern Pacific Railway 1893–1896. August 25 – George C. Magoun, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Atchison and Santa Fe Railway in the late 1880s. November 17 – Edmund Morel, English-born civil engineer in Japan. November 24 – Henry Kirke Porter, American steam locomotive builder and founder of H. K. Porter, Inc. Waters, Lawrence Leslie. Steel Trails to Santa Fe. Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press

Ren & Stimpy's Crock O' Christmas is the second album and only Christmas album featuring characters from the Nickelodeon animated series, The Ren and Stimpy Show. The album released September 21, 1993 through Nickelodeon, Sony Wonder and Columbia Records, is a concept album that follows the title characters as they prepare for the holidays. Soiled diapers are hung from mantelpieces in lieu of Christmas stockings while another tradition calls for filling of one's uncle's boots with coleslaw, it is hoped that the Gilded Yak, who lives at the "West Pole" and who appears via the drain of the bathtub, will leave shaving cream scum in the bathroom sink. Ren & Stimpy's Crock O' Christmas was re-released on compact disc August 5, 1997 on the Kid Rhino Entertainment record label; as in the case with episodes of the television program, Billy West provided the speaking and singing voices of both Ren and Stimpy. 1. "Fleck the Walls" - 2:51 – Stimpy explains to Ren that it is Yaksmas Eve to the tune of "Deck the Halls".

2. "Cat Hairballs" - 3:27 – Stimpy sings about the gifts he can make out of his hairballs to the tune of "Jingle Bells". The song had an accompanying music video. 3. "We Wish You a Hairy Chestwig" - 3:04 – Ren and Stimpy sing about the "chestwig" they've gotten for Mr. Pipe to the tune of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", wishing him a "hairy chestwig and a bucket of beards". 4. "It's a Wizzleteats Kind of Christmas" - 3:51 – Stimpy sings a song about Stinky Wizzleteats, singer of the "Happy Happy Joy Joy" song. 5. "We're Going Shopping" - 4:39 – Stimpy drags Ren into the mall to do some Christmas shopping. 6. "Yak Shaving Day" - 4:22 – Ren and Stimpy stumble on the secret gathering place of the Gilded Yaks. 7. "What Is Christmas?" - 3:19 – Stimpy and his son, Stinky the Fart, recall the events of "Son of Stimpy". 8. "Cobb to the World" - 3:08 – Ren and Stimpy sing the song of "good king" Wilbur Cobb, a senile senior citizen, to the tune of "Joy to the World". 9. "Happy Holiday Hop" - 3:48 – Ren and Stimpy attend TV star Muddy Mudskipper's holiday celebration.

10. "I Hate Christmas" - 4:23 – While Stimpy goes to bed, Ren sings the blues about his personal disdain for the holiday. 11. "The Twelve Days of Yaksmas" - 4:24 – Ren and Stimpy count down the Yaksmas gifts of Ren's cousin Svën Hoek to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas". 12. "Decorate Yourself" - 5:26 – Ren and Stimpy sing an anthem in the style of "We Are the World" about decorating oneself for the holidays. Heather Adams – Production Coordination Tom Armbruster – Synthesizer, Piano, Keyboards, Whistle, Finger Snaps Al Arthur – Drums Charlie Brissette – Bass, Vocals, Producer, Finger Snaps Bob Camp – Illustrations Kennedy Clarke - Stinky Wizzleteats Vanessa Coffey – Percussion, Voices, Producer Cheryl Chase - Vocals Phil Feather – Woodwind Jimmy Gomez – Orchestral Arrangements Buddy Gordon – Trumpet Billy Harbour – Drums Mark Hollingsworth – Recorder Jean Jordan – Director Eddie King – Whistle, Mixing Editor Jim Lum – Guitar Billy West – Vocals, Performer