On December 18th 1898, French driving enthusiast Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat set the Land Speed Record (world record) of 39.24 miles (62.78 kilo-meters) per hour on the 2-kilometre course at Acheres, France. Get this, it was with an electric vehicle.

A drawing of the Jeantaud that Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat drove

Date:
      December 18th 1898
Name(s):
      Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat
Occupation:
      French driving enthusiast
Location:
      Acheres, France
Record:
      39.24 miles
      (62.78 kilo-meters)

Additional Information:

• Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat – Wikipedia
  Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat (1866, 7 June Paris, France[1] – 20 November 1903, Le Cannet, France[2]) was a French aristocrat and race car driver. He was the son of Prosper, Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat, minister of Napoleon III, and of his American wife Marie-Louise Pilié.
• Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat – Land Speed Racing History
  A list of Races
• Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat set the first officially recognized land …
  His older brother Marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat was interested in the automobile and became a founding member of the Automobile Club de France in 1895.
• The First World Land Speed Record | Unique Cars and Parts
  Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat holds a unique place in motoring’s history because he was the first man to set up a World Land Speed Record. It was, of course, the two Germans, Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, who invented the motor car and made it work, but it was the French who held the first motor races and started the idea of competitive motoring.