Long before cars crowded the roads, ships sailed the seas, so when Lloyd's of London decided to offer the world's first auto insurance policy in 1904, it had nothing to steer by. In fact, its underwriters didn't even know how to describe the new vehicles, calling them "ships navigating on land." In 1911, Lloyd's became the first insurance market to protect airplanes against loss, but after a year of crashes caused by bad weather, Lloyd's reversed course and got out of the aviation underwriting business.
The fun side of insurance:
- Poster girl and actress Betty Grable was such a sex symbol in the 1940s that she had her legs insured for $1 million USD.
- Anyone concerned about being abducted by aliens can buy "UFO insurance," but you have to prove that you were taken before it will pay out.
- Fire and home insurers got started 350 years ago, after the Great Fire of London destroyed the majority of the city's homes and buildings in 1666.