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.

On this day in 1955, William G. Cobb of the General Motors Corp
demonstrates his 15-inch-long “Sunmobile,” the world’s first solar-powered automobile, at the General Motors Powerama auto show
held in Chicago, Illinois.

Today, more than a half-century after Cobb debuted the Sunmobile,
a mass-produced solar car has yet to hit the market anywhere in the world.

William G. Cobb

The last total solar eclipse occurred on February 26, 1979.

      

This morning, the Moon’s shadow will be racing across the surface
of  the earth first touching land just north of Newport, Oregon at
about 10:15 a.m. PDT. After today, this type of event won’t happen
again until Oct. 14, 2023, according to the National Aeronautics and  
Space Administration (NASA).

Clay tablets found at ancient archaeological sites show that the Babylonians not only recorded eclipses—the earliest known
Babylonian record is of the eclipse that took place on May 3,
1375 BCE—but were also fairly accurate in predicting them. They
were the first people to use the Saros Cycle to predict eclipses.