Bids for the 1996 Summer Olympics for the Games (a promise that was not carried out eventually, as Athens went on to host the 2004 Summer Olympics). Coca-Cola executives, however, had feared that a successful Atlanta bid would hurt their business. While they produced commemorative pins of the six candidate cities, with the intent of handing out the winning city's pins to IOC delegates, this backfired as others alleged that Coca-Cola had predicted which city had won; indeed sales of the beverage in Greece dropped for the next few years. A year later, an article appeared in the German periodical "Der Spiegel" accusing the Atlanta Committee
1996 Coca-Cola 600 1996 Coca-Cola 600 The 1996 Coca-Cola 600, the 37th running of the event, was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race held on May 26, 1996 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina. Contested at 400 laps on the 1.5 mile (2.4 km) speedway, it was the 11th race of the 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. Dale Jarrett of Robert Yates Racing won the race. Chuck Bown would step down from professional stock car racing after this event. On the day of the race, 0.01 inches of precipitation were recorded around the speedway. Charlotte Motor Speedway is a motorsports