On February 21, 1948, the National Association for Stock
Car Racing, or NASCAR, as it became to be widely known.
was officially incorporated. NASCAR racing went on to
become one of America’s most popular spectator sports,
as well as a multi-billion-dollar industry.

The driving force behind the establishment of NASCAR
was William “Bill” France Sr. a mechanic and auto-repair
shop owner from Washington, D.C., who in the mid-1930s
moved to Daytona Beach, Florida.

After witnessing how racing rules could vary from event
to event and how dishonest promoters could abscond
with prize money, France felt there was a need for a
governing body to sanction and promote racing.

Bill France Sr. or Big Bill (1909 – 1992).

TURNER, Ore. — The man behind Oregon’s iconic Enchanted
Forest amusement park in Turner has passed away.

Family members said that Roger Tofte (above) who created
the park south of Salem off of Interstate 5 more than half a
century ago, has died at age 96.

Tofte built much of the park by hand, opening it to the public
in August of 1971.

America’s first hospital opened its doors "to care for the sick-
poor and insane wandering the streets of Philadelphia."

It is co-founded by—you guessed it—Ben Franklin.

The hospital pioneered institutional healthcare in the colonies,
featuring the first hospital pharmacy.

While Bellevue Hospital in NYC was established earlier (1736)
as an almshouse, Pennsylvania Hospital is recognized as the
first dedicated hospital institution in the American colonies

     
    
    
    
The operating theater in the hospital.

Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)

Robert Hall Weir  (October 16, 1947 – January 10, 2026)
was a  musician and songwriter best known as a founding       
member of the Grateful Dead..

An announcement said he died after a “courageous” battle
with cancer and an underlying lung issue.

The two founders: President Franklin D. Roosevelt (left)
meeting with Basil O’Connor over a sack of dimes.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an adult victim of polio, founded the
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which he later
renamed the March of Dimes Foundation, on January 3, 1938.