On February 15, 1998, after 20 years of trying, racing great
Dale Earnhardt Sr. finally wins his first Daytona 500, the
National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing season
opener and an event dubbed the “Super Bowl of stock
car racing.”

Driving his black No. 3 Chevrolet, Earnhardt recorded an
average speed of 172.712 m.p.h. and took home a then-
record more than $1 million in prize money.

Following his victory, crews from competing teams lined
the pit road at the Daytona International Speedway in
Daytona Beach, Florida, to congratulate Earnhardt, who
drove his car onto the grass and did several celebratory
doughnuts, or circles.         
       
        
        
   
       

Earnhardt’s win that February in 1998 represented his sole Daytona
victory. Tragically, on February 18, 2001, Earnhardt died at the
age of 49 during a crash at that year’s 43rd Daytona 500.

 
On Februa14, around the year A.D. 270, Valentine, a holy
priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, is said
to have been beheaded.

Under the rule of Claudius the Cruel, Rome was involved in
many unpopular and bloody campaigns.

Claudius believed that Roman men were unwilling to join the
army because of their strong attachment to their wives and
families.

To get rid of the problem, Claudius banned all marriages and engagements in Rome. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the
decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages
for young lovers in secret.

   
1909

On February 13, 1923, the New York Renaissance, the first
all-Black professional basketball team, was organized.

The Renaissance, commonly called the Rens, become one
of the dominant teams of the 1920s and 1930s.

Robert L. Douglas (1882 – 1979)

Nicknamed the "Father of Black
Professional Basketball", Douglas
owned and coached the Rens from
1923 to 1949, guiding them to a
2,318-381 record.

1940

1965

Charles Monroe "Sparky" Schulz 
(November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000)

Schulz was an cartoonist, the creator of the comic strip Peanuts
which features his two best-known characters, Charlie Brown
and Snoopy.

He is widely regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists
in history.

Schulz died in his sleep of a heart attack at his home in Santa
Rosa, California, at the age of 77. He was suffering from
colorectal cancer.

On February 12, 1909, the 100th anniversary of Abraham
Lincoln’s birth, a group that included African American
leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells-Barnett
announced the formation of a new organization.          

Called the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, it would have a profound effect on the         
struggle for civil rights and the course of 20th-century
American history.