William John Vukovich II (March 29, 1944 – August 20, 2023)

Bill Vukovich II, the Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year in
1968, died Sunday. 

He finished in the top ten 85 times, with one victory in 1973
at Michigan and best finish at the Indianapolis 500 came in
1973, where he came in second in a rain-shortened, tragedy-
marred event. He was inducted in the National Midget Auto
Racing Hall of Fame in 1998

Vukovich also had 23 National midget car victories in his career,
and drove for part of his career in J. C. Agajanian‘s midget car.

Bill Vukovich II was the son of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner
Bill Vukovich and the father of Billy Vukovich III, both of whom
were killed in racing accidents.

Vukovich ll in 1967.

On August 21, 1980, animal rights advocates Ingrid Newkirk
(above) and Alex Pacheco (below) found People for the Ethical 
Treatment of Animals. Rising from humble beginnings, PETA 
will soon become the world’s foremost and most controversial 
animal rights organization.

The modern United States received its crowning star when
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation
admitting (Native spelling: Hawai‘i) into the Union as the
50th state on this day in 1959.

The first McDonalds in Moscow on opening day, 1990. It
was the largest McDonald’s in the world at the time, with
seating for 900 and a staff of 600 workers.

On August 20, 1619, “20 and odd” Angolans, kidnapped by
the Portuguese, arrived in the British colony of Virginia and
are then bought by English colonists.

The arrival of the enslaved Africans in the New World marked
the beginning of two and a half centuries of slavery in North
America.