Portrait of Pete Hamilton

Birthday profile

Pete Hamilton

Pete Hamilton, American race car driver (died 2017)

Born
July 20, 1942
Died
March 22, 2017
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1942

About Pete Hamilton

Peter Goodwill Hamilton (July 20, 1942 – March 21, 2017) was an American professional stock car racing driver. He competed in NASCAR for six years, where he won four times in his career (including the 1970 Daytona 500), three times driving for Petty Enterprises. == Racing career == Hamilton began racing in the street division in 1962 at Norwood Arena Speedway in Massachusetts, where he quickly earned the nickname "The Dedham Flash". In 1965, he was the Thompson World Series Twin 50s champion. He won the 1967 NASCAR national Sportsman division championship. After that season, Hamilton moved south to race in NASCAR. He started racing in the NASCAR Grand National division in 1968, and was the series Rookie of the Year. In 1969, he competed in NASCAR's Grand American division, a division of smaller pony cars. He won 12 of 26 races that year. Hamilton had three wins in 1970 for Petty Enterprises in the No. 40 Plymouth Superbird with Maurice Petty as his crew-chief.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

Pete Hamilton timeline

  1. He won the 1967 NASCAR national Sportsman division championship.
  2. He competed in NASCAR for six years, where he won four times in his career (including the 1970 Daytona 500), three times driving for Petty Enterprises.
  3. Hamilton won his Twin 125 mile qualifying race for the 1971 Daytona 500 driving Cotton Owens' No. 6 Plymouth, finishing the season with one pole and 11 top five finishes.

The world when Pete Hamilton was born

Pete Hamilton was born in 1942. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1942

  • #1 song"White Christmas" – Bing Crosby
  • Top movieCasablanca
  • Best-selling bookThe Song of Bernadette – Franz Werfel

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst Negro League World Series
  • Top headlineBattle of Midway becomes turning point of WWII in the Pacific
  • Technology milestoneEnrico Fermi achieves first nuclear chain reaction
  • Defining fadRationing and war bonds
  • Notable inventionNapalm
  • World population2.35 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population134.9M

1942 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Pete Hamilton's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19422026
Gas$0.20$3.45/gal
Average home$5,600$435,000
Average income$3,800$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.27$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population134.9M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Driver Database, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.