Lee Petty No. 42 and Johnny Beauchamp No. 73 battle on the last lap
of the 1959 Daytona 500.

The 1959 First 500 Mile NASCAR International Sweepstakes at Daytona
(now known as the 1959 Inaugural Daytona 500) was the second race
of the 1959 NASCAR Grand National Series season. It was held on
February 22, 1959, in front of 41,921 spectators. It was the first race
held at the 2.5-mile Daytona. The race lasted 3:41:22, with an average
speed of 135.521 mph.

It took NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. three days to decide the winner
the following Wednesday. In the end, with the help of photographs and
newsreel footage, Petty was officially declared the winner.

Lee Arnold Petty
(March 14, 1914 – April 5, 2000)

Lee Petty was one of the pioneers of
NASCAR and one of its first superstars.
He is also the father of Richard Petty,
who went on to become one of the
most successful stock car racing
drivers of all time.

The original NASCAR logo.

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. The conference that led to
the NAACP’s founding had been called in response to a race riot in
Illinois.

A silent march in New York to protest the police treatment of blacks during riots in East St. Louis in 1917. They marched down Fifth
Avenue on that summer Saturday without saying a word. 

The first Academy Awards ceremony was held in Hollywood on May 16, 1929
with a mere 270 guests. The name Oscar would not used for another few
years. Emil Jannings was the first Best Actor and Janet Gaynor Best Actress.

The first 12 winners (and the 20 films that were given an honorary scroll of commendation) had already been revealed in the Los Angeles Times three
months earlier.

The inaugural awards were the only time in Academy history that the
ceremony wasn’t broadcast in some way; even a year later it was covered
live on radio.

MIKE GRACIA

Brace Beemer, center, with The Lone Ranger cast in the WXYZ radio
studios.

"The Lone Ranger" was aired on radio for the first time on this day in 1933. The show ran for 2,956 episodes and ended in 1955. The title character was played 
by George Seaton, Earle Graser, and Brace Beemer. Tonto was played by,
among others, John Todd and Roland Parker.

Francis Hamilton "Fran" Striker
(August 19, 1903 – September 4, 1962).

Fran Striker was a writer for radio and comics,
best known for creating the Lone Ranger,
Green Hornet, and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon
characters.     

    
Franklin Delano Roosevelt  (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945)   
(Last photograph of Roosevelt, taken the day before his death)
                                                    

Franklin Roosevelt, often referred to by his initials FDR, served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. A member
of the Democratic Party, he won a record four presidential elections and
became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th
century.

On January 29, 1936, the U.S. Baseball Hall of Fame elected its first members
in Cooperstown, New York: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson.

The Hall of Fame actually had its beginnings in 1935, when plans were made
to build a museum devoted to baseball and its 100-year history. A private organization based in Cooperstown called the Clark Foundation thought
that establishing the Baseball Hall of Fame in their city would help to
reinvigorate the area’s Depression-ravaged economy by attracting
tourists.