The day of Elvis Presley’s funeral, August 17, 1977, FTD delivered
more than 3,100 floral arrangements, wiping out Memphis-area
florists and setting a record for the most flowers sold in the US
in a single day.

The Double Eagle II completed the first transatlantic balloon
flight when it landed in a barley field near Paris, 137 hours
after lifting off from Presque Isle, Maine.

The helium-filled balloon was piloted by Ben Abruzzo, Maxie
Anderson and Larry Newman and flew 3,233 miles in the six-
day odyssey.         
        
        
        
        
        
            
       

Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman arrival
in France.

the Gondola of Double Eagle 2 is on display
in Ultralight Aircraft at the Steven F.
Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA.

 
CAMILLE BOHANNON

Madonna in 1976.

Madonna, singer and actress known for her boundary-
pushing, ever-changing persona. Hits include "Like a
Virgin" and "Like a Prayer", is 67 years young today.

On August 15, 1969, the Woodstock music festival opened on
a patch of farmland in White Lake, a hamlet in the upstate New
York town of Bethel.

Promoters John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, Artie Kornfield and
Michael Lang originally envisioned the festival as a way to raise
funds to build a recording studio and rock-and-roll retreat near
the town of Woodstock, New York.

Apocalypse Now, the acclaimed Vietnam War film directed by
Francis Ford Coppola, opened in theaters around the United
States on August 15, 1979.

The film, inspired in part by Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella
Heart of Darkness, among other sources, told the story of
an Army captain (played by Martin Sheen) and crew of men
who are sent into the Cambodian jungle to kill a U.S. Special
Forces colonel (Marlon Brando) who has gone AWOL and is
thought to be crazy.

Francis Ford Coppola (86)

Martin Sheen (85)

Robert Duvall (94)

Harrison Ford (83)