On this day 10 years ago, Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300 becoming the first female driver ever to win an IndyCar Series race. Considered to be a pioneer for women in motorsports, Patrick’s achievements allowed her to break the gender barrier in a predominately male industry and become influential to many women who have taken up a career in auto racing since then. WATCH her career highlights… (2008)

– Photo by SarahStierch, CC

MORE Good News on this Day in History:

  • The Secchi disk, created by Italian astronomer Angelo Secchi, was first demonstrated as an inexpensive and straightforward method of measuring water clarity, using a white frisbee-sized disk–sometimes with black and white quadrants–which is still widely used to measure a lake’s transparency (1865)
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1871 became law, protecting blacks from the Ku Klux Klan by providing a civil remedy for abuses then being committed in the South (1871)
  • Fenway Park opened as…