Colt Samuel Colt was born in Hartford, Connecticut on July 19,
1814. As a youth, he passed the time stripping down
and reassembling his father’s firearms.
Beretta The Fabbrica d'Armi Pietro Beretta (Pietro Beretta Arms
Factory) traces its origins to 1526, when an arms manufacturer
from Gardone Val Trompia in the province of
Brescia, Mastro Bartolomeo Beretta, received 296
ducats in payment for 185 harquebuses sold to the
Arsenal of Venice.
SMITH&WESSON In 1856, Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson
established a company to produce a small
revolver that could fire the Rimfire cartridge they
had patented two years before, they called the
company Smith & Wesson.