According to the speaker, the first modern Olympic Games were held as an international competition.

The modern Olympic Games began in Athens in 1896 as a result of the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French educator whose desire was to promote international understanding through athletics. Nine nations participated in the first Games; over 100 nations currently compete.

With major airports facing chronic traffic jams and nobody volunteering to have a new airport built in his backyard, how is the air-travel boom going to sustain itself? One answer may come from the Department of Defense, which had sponsored development of an innovative new type of aircraft that doesn’t need a runway; its engine pods point upward for vertical takeoff, then tilt horizontally for forward flight.