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)

Presidents’ Day, officially Washington’s Birthday, is a holiday in the
U.S. celebrated on the third Monday of February to honor all persons who served in the office of president of the United States and a federal 
holiday specifically honoring George Washington, who led the
Continental Army to victory in the American Revolutionary War,
presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and was the first president of the United States.

Washington’s Birthday was celebrated on February 22 from 1879
until 1971, when the Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved it to the
third Monday in February, which can occur from February 15 to the 21st.The day eventually also became known as Presidents’ Day^.
(though the placement of the apostrophe, if any, varies) and is
most often an occasion to remember all U.S. presidents, or to
honor Abraham Lincoln‘s and Washington’s birthdays together.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A gemstone, billed as one of the largest
gem-quality opals ever found, was sold for $143,750 at auction in
Alaska on Sunday.

The opal, dubbed the “Americus Australis,” weighs more than
11,800 carats, according to the auction house Alaska Premier
Auctions & Appraisals. It also has a long history.

Most recently, it was kept in a linen closet in a home in Big Lake,
north of Anchorage, by Fred von Brandt, who mines for gold in
Alaska and whose family has deep roots in the gem and rock
business.

The opal is larger than a brick and is broken into two pieces,
which von Brandt said was a practice used decades ago to
prove gem quality.

Von Brandt said the stone has been in his family since the late
1950s, when his grandfather bought it from an Australian opal
dealer named John Altmann.

From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Herschel Glenn Jr. was
successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7
spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut
on this day in 1962.

Glenn, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was
among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 to become
America’s first astronauts.

On February 19, 1847, the first rescuers reached surviving members
of the Donner Party, a group of 89 California-bound emigrants led
by the Donner and Reed families, stranded by snow in the Sierra
Nevada Mountains. Three additional rescue parties arrived later.

The trip back to Sutter’s Fort was also brutally hard. Only 45 of the original 89 members of the Donner Party survived.