On August 31, 1955, William G. Cobb of the General Motors Corp.
(GM) demonstrated his 15-inch-long “Sunmobile,” the world’s first
solar-powered automobile, at the General Motors Powerama auto
show held in Chicago, Illinois.

Ransom Eli Olds (June 3, 1864 – August 26, 1950)

Olds of Lansing, Michigan was a pioneer of the American
automotive industry who founded Olds Motors Works—
which would later become Oldsmobile—on August 21, 1897.

 He claimed to have built his first steam car as early as 1887
and his first gasoline-powered car in 1896.

The modern assembly line and its basic concept is credited
to Olds, who used it to build the first mass-produced auto, 
the Oldsmobile Curved Dash, beginning in 1901. 

On August 20, 1920, seven men, including legendary all-around
athlete and football star Jim Thorpe, met to organize a professional football league at the Jordan and Hupmobile Auto Showroom in
Canton, Ohio. The meeting led to the creation of the American Professional Football Conference (APFC), the forerunner to the
hugely successful National Football League.

James Francis Thorpe
(May 22 or 28, 1887 – March 28, 1953)

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

Singer Madonna Louise Ciccone is 64 years young today.

The singer, songwriter, and actress is referred to as the "Queen
of Pop". Rolling Stone listed her among its greatest artists and
greatest songwriters of all time.

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. Apocalypse Now, which co-starred Robert
Duvall and Dennis Hopper, became notorious for its long,
difficult production, which included budget problems, shooting
delays due to bad weather on the Philippines set, a heart attack 
for Sheen and a nervous breakdown for Coppola.  
                                             

Francis Ford Coppola became 83 in April.