Richard Petty’s new car and baseball-loving bear cub — Today in Triangle history
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Raleigh artist Dare Coulter began repainting her vandalized mural in July 2018.
- After Daytona, NASCAR star Richard Petty switched from a Dodge to a Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
- In 1926 amateur baseball, the Prisoners kept a 4-month-old bear cub mascot, Rosie.
A daily look at some of The News & Observer’s headlines on this date in past years.
On this day in 2018, Raleigh artist Dare Coulter began painting over the graffiti scrawled across the mural she had created on South Salisbury Street — touch-up work that started by covering over the Confederate flag.
The mural “Dare to Dissent” lasted more than a year in downtown Raleigh before vandals scrawled racist messages across it using red markers.
Donations poured in to help Coulter restore her images of protest topped with a “We the People” banner.
“I don’t want this to be the lasting impression, or for people to feel bad or negative,” she told The N&O. “I want to go back to the love there was before.”
A sample of other historical happenings on July 19:
1978: Richard Petty makes a switch
After a winless year, NASCAR superstar Richard Petty dropped his Dodge for a new Chevrolet Monte Carlo, declaring after a loss at Daytona, “The car just wouldn’t do what we wanted it to do down there.”
1938: How is he not dead?
A 24-year-old Burlington man sank while swimming in the Haw River and survived despite spending 20 minutes underwater. A power line employee, who also held a Red Cross certificate, dove in after the drowning man, pulled him to safety and kept him alive by artificial respiration until the ambulance arrived — two hours later.
And 100 years ago today in Raleigh ...
In 1926, a busy week of amateur baseball games included a matchup between the Prisoners and the Highwaymen at what was then called State’s Prison. The Prisoners, it should be noted, had a 4-month old bear cub named Rosie for a mascot, and they fed it candy and soda pop.
