Future President Thomas Jefferson, drafter of the Declaration of Independence and the nation’s preeminent political theorist, was
born in Shadwell, Virginia on April 13, 1743. 

On this day in 1751, James Madison, drafter of the Constitution,
recorder of the Constitutional Convention, author of the Federalist 
Papers and fourth president of the United States, was born on a
plantation in Virginia.

Madison first distinguished himself as a student at the College
of New Jersey (now Princeton University), where he successfully completed a four-year course of study in two years and, in 1769,
helped found the American Whig Society, the second literary and
debate society at Princeton (and the world), to rival the previously established Cliosophic Society.

On February 21, 1948, the National Association for Stock Car
Racing, —or NASCAR, as it will come to be widely known—is
officially incorporated. NASCAR racing will go 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. (1909-1992), a mechanic and auto-
repair shop owner from Washington, D.C., who in the mid-
1930s moved to Daytona Beach, Florida.

William Henry Getty France
(September 26, 1909 – June 7, 1992)

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

More than 6,000 people were killed when a magnitude 7.2 earthquake 
hit the city of Kobe, Japan on this day in 1995. It was the most severe 
earthquake to affect that region this century. The economic loss as a result of this earthquake is estimated to reach $200 billion.

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790)

Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the
United States. He was a leading author, printer, political
theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist,
inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and
diplomat.

Benjamin Franklin wrote under the pseudonym Mrs. Silence
Dogood, and published provocative letters. He was the first
United States Ambassador to France, where he advocated
religious tolerance.

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry (above) 
released a report that said that smoking cigarettes was a definite
health hazard.

Amelia Earhart Putnam became the first woman to fly solo from
Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland Airport in Oakland,
California on this day in 1935.

Amelia in Oakland, triumphant after the Hawaii-to-California flight.

Amelia Mary Earhart, (born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937)