FedEx was born out of a college paper written by founder Frederick W. Smith at Yale in 1965. Smith wrote a paper about the need for a new shipping industry to optimize urgent shipping needs, especially for air freight shippers. His system addressed time-sensitive shipments like medicine, computer parts, and electronics. Unfortunately, Smith received a very average grade on the paper, but very fortunately for the rest of the world, he chased his idea and vision.

Smith purchased controlling interest in Arkansas Aviation Sales and was able to gain valuable insight into the logistics of shipping packages big and small. After years of working with the company, he decided to begin Federal Express, known today as FedEx. In 1973, FedEx officially began operating with 389 team members. Fourteen small aircraft took off on April 17 of that ye...