I've read it started with:
- bycicling race stewards in France that used checkered vests (!)
- (I am not making this up) table cloths in America waved by restaurant owners after horse races
- Sidney Waldon, a Packard employee to mark a race route in the defunct Glidden Tour
- the Vanderbilt Cup in 1904 (apparently, this is the first photo of it).
Any ideas?
Watching the Vanderbilt Cup photo, I got another question without answer: how many squares have a "regulations" checkered flag?
