50 Fun Facts About August Fun Facts and

In which year did the Roman Senate rename the eighth month in honour of Augustus?

The Senate's decree of 8 BC gave the month its name in honour of Augustus, who had held the honorific title Augustus since 27 BC and ruled until his death in AD 14.

What was August originally called in the Roman calendar?

Sextilis, meaning 'sixth', was the month's name because the early Roman year began in March, which made it the sixth month; it kept that name until the Senate renamed it for the emperor.

Which medieval scholar invented the myth that August was lengthened to match July?

Johannes de Sacrobosco, writing in the 1200s, claimed the emperor padded his month to rival July; in fact the month had the same length before it was renamed, so the tale is false.

August's best-known birthstone is which yellow-green gem?

Peridot, the gem form of the mineral olivine, is August's traditional birthstone; it occurs only in shades of green and has even been found in pallasite meteorites.

Which flower is a birth flower of August?

The poppy is also associated with the month; the gladiolus is said to signify strength of character.

The two Western zodiac signs that fall in August are Virgo and which other?

Leo, the lion, covers roughly 23 July to 22 August in the Western zodiac, after which Virgo the maiden takes over for the rest of the month.

The Perseid meteor shower, which peaks in mid-August, comes from debris left by which comet?

Comet Swift-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun about every 133 years, sheds the debris; the meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus, which gives the shower its name.

The hot, sultry 'dog days' of August are named after the rising of which star?

Sirius, the Dog Star in Canis Major, rose with the Sun in late summer; its Greek name means 'scorching', and the Greeks blamed it for heat, fevers and mad dogs.

In the Southern Hemisphere, August falls during which season?

Winter in the Southern Hemisphere runs through June, July and August, so Australians and South Africans have their coldest weeks while the north is in high summer.

On which day of August 1945 was the atomic bomb 'Little Boy' dropped on Hiroshima?

Hiroshima was bombed on the morning of the 6th of August 1945 by the B-29 Enola Gay; the plutonium bomb 'Fat Man' hit Nagasaki three days later, on the 9th.

The Woodstock music festival of August 1969 was held on the New York dairy farm of whom?

Max Yasgur, a dairy farmer, rented his 600-acre farm near Bethel for the festival, which drew about 400,000 people; the site was some 40 miles from the town of Woodstock itself.

From the steps of which landmark did Martin Luther King Jr. give his 'I Have a Dream' speech?

King spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on 28 August 1963 to a March on Washington crowd of about 250,000; gospel singer Mahalia Jackson urged him to 'tell 'em about the dream'.

Elvis Presley died at Graceland on 16 August 1977 at what age?

Elvis was 42: born on 8 January 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, he was found dead at his Graceland home in Memphis on 16 August 1977.

Hurricane Katrina devastated the US Gulf Coast in late August 2005 after the failure of what?

The city's levees and floodwalls failed in more than 50 places under the storm surge, flooding about 80 percent of the city; the storm killed well over a thousand people.

Construction of the Berlin Wall began on which date in 1961?

Work began overnight on 13 August 1961, when East German troops sealed the border with barbed wire; the Wall then divided the city for 28 years until 9 November 1989.

The 19th Amendment, giving American women the vote, took effect in August of which year?

Ratification was completed in 1920: Tennessee became the decisive 36th state on 18 August, and Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the amendment on 26 August 1920.

In 79 AD, an August eruption of which volcano buried Pompeii and Herculaneum?

Vesuvius erupted in AD 79 and buried Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash and pyroclastic flows; Pliny the Younger's letters give the traditional date of 24 August, though an inscription found in 2018 points to October.

The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, in late August, produced a sound heard how far away?

The blast was heard nearly 3,000 miles away on Rodrigues Island near Mauritius, the most distant sound ever documented; over 36,000 people died, mostly in the tsunamis that followed.

India celebrates its Independence Day on which day of the month?

The prime minister traditionally raises the flag and speaks from the Red Fort in Delhi.

Richard Nixon became the first US president to do what, in August 1974?

Nixon became the first president to resign from office, announcing it on 8 August 1974 and leaving at noon on the 9th, after the House Judiciary Committee had approved three impeachment articles.

Which song's video was the first ever played on MTV when it launched in August 1981?

'Video Killed the Radio Star' by the Buggles was the first clip MTV aired, at 12:01 am on 1 August 1981; the song had been a UK number one in 1979.

Diana, Princess of Wales, died in a Paris car crash on which date in 1997?

Diana died in the early hours of 31 August 1997 after the Mercedes she was travelling in crashed in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel; Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul also died.

The Panama Canal opened to shipping in August of which year?

The canal opened to traffic in August 1914, when the SS Ancon made the first official transit; the United States had taken over the stalled French project in 1904.

The US Open tennis tournament starts in late August at a park in which New York borough?

The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center sits in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens; the US Open is the year's fourth and final Grand Slam, played on hard courts.

The Little League World Series is played each August in South Williamsport, in which US state?

South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, has hosted the series at Howard J. Lamade Stadium since 1959; the tournament began in neighbouring Williamsport in 1947 and is for players aged 10 to 12.

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is held each August in which state?

Sturgis is a small city in the Black Hills of South Dakota; the rally began in 1938 when local Indian Motorcycle dealer Clarence 'Pappy' Hoel and the Jackpine Gypsies club staged races and stunts.

The Edinburgh Fringe, held every August, holds what distinction?

The Fringe is the world's largest performing arts event, with thousands of shows staged across the city each August; it began in 1947 when eight uninvited troupes performed alongside the first Edinburgh International Festival.

Which American sprinter won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics in August 1936?

Jesse Owens won the 100 m, 200 m, long jump and 4x100 m relay in the first nine days of August 1936, a public rebuke to the Nazi hosts' racial ideology.

Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon, was born in August 1930 in which state?

Armstrong was born on 5 August 1930 near Wapakoneta in western Ohio; he commanded Apollo 11 and stepped onto the Moon on 20 July 1969.

Which pop superstar was born on 16 August 1958 in Bay City, Michigan?

Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan, on 16 August 1958 and moved to New York in 1978 to pursue dance before her self-titled 1983 debut album.

Which TV comedy legend, born in August 1911, later ran her own Hollywood studio?

Lucille Ball, born in Jamestown, New York, in August 1911, starred in I Love Lucy from 1951 and in 1962 became the first woman to run a major studio, Desilu.

Jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong was born in August 1901 in which city?

Armstrong was born in New Orleans in August 1901, in the poor Back o' Town neighbourhood; he long claimed an Independence Day 1900 birthday, but a baptismal record later fixed the real date.

The 'Master of Suspense', filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock, was born in August 1899 in which country?

Hitchcock was born in England in August 1899, above his family's greengrocer's shop in Leytonstone, then in Essex and later absorbed into Greater London.

Mother Teresa, founder of the Missionaries of Charity, was born in August 1910 in which city?

Anjeze Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, later Mother Teresa, was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, then Uskub in the Ottoman Empire and today the capital of North Macedonia; she was canonised in 2016.

Barack Obama, the 44th US president, was born on 4 August 1961 in which city?

Obama was born at Kapiolani hospital in Honolulu in 1961, the first president born in Hawaii; he was 47 when he took office in January 2009.

Fashion designer Coco Chanel was born in August 1883 in a charity hospital in which country?

Chanel was born on 19 August 1883 in Saumur, in France's Loire valley, in a hospice run by nuns; her mother was a laundrywoman, and Chanel later reinvented her own origin story.

Michael Jackson, the 'King of Pop', was born on 29 August 1958 in which US city?

Gary, Indiana, a steel town near Chicago, was the Jackson family's home at 2300 Jackson Street, where Michael started performing with his brothers in the Jackson 5 in the mid-1960s.

On which day of the month did actress Marilyn Monroe die in 1962?

Monroe died on the 4th of August 1962 at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, of a barbiturate overdose; born Norma Jeane Mortenson on 1 June 1926, she was 36.

Which hurricane devastated South Florida in August 1992?

Hurricane Andrew came ashore near Homestead, Florida, on 24 August 1992 as a Category 5 storm, destroying tens of thousands of homes and causing more than $25 billion in damage.

Which famous painting was stolen from the Louvre in August 1911?

Vincenzo Peruggia, a former Louvre worker, walked out with the Mona Lisa on 21 August 1911; it was recovered in Florence in 1913 after he tried to sell it.

How many days does August have?

August has 31 days, one of seven months of that length in the year; its length has been fixed since the Julian calendar reform.

Whitney Houston was born in August 1963 in which state?

Houston was born in Newark, New Jersey, on 9 August 1963; her mother Cissy Houston was a gospel singer and her cousin Dionne Warwick a pop star.

Which Roman king added two winter months to the calendar, pushing August to eighth place?

Numa Pompilius, Rome's legendary second king, is credited with adding two months to Romulus's ten-month year, which had begun in March, leaving the month that became August in eighth place.

Who added two days to the month in 46 BC, giving it its modern length of 31 days?

Julius Caesar's calendar reform, enacted in 46 BC, lengthened the month from 29 days to the length it has kept ever since; nearly four decades passed before the Senate renamed it for the first emperor.

Which country celebrates its national day on 1 August?

Switzerland's national day marks the Federal Charter of 1291, the pact between the cantons Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden traditionally dated to early August; it has been a nationwide public holiday since 1994.

Which country celebrates its Independence Day on 17 August?

Indonesia proclaimed independence from the Netherlands on 17 August 1945, when Sukarno read the declaration in Jakarta days after Japan's surrender; the Dutch recognised it only in 1949.

On which date of the month is International Lefthanders Day observed?

Lefthanders Day falls on the 13th of August; it was first marked in 1976 by Dean R. Campbell's Lefthanders International, and the day before is World Elephant Day.

Which pair of gems complete August's trio of birthstones?

Sardonyx and spinel join the month's best-known stone: sardonyx was the traditional August gem for centuries, and spinel, long mistaken for ruby in crown jewels, was added in 2016.

Among the Guanches of Tenerife, the month was called Beñesmer, which was also the name of what?

Benesmer was the Guanches' harvest festival, held in August once the grain was gathered and celebrated with communal feasting; the Guanches were the Canary Islands' indigenous people before the Spanish conquest.

In the Southern Hemisphere, August is the seasonal equivalent of which Northern Hemisphere month?

February sits six months from August, so the two mirror each other across the equator: August brings the south its coldest weeks, as February does for the north.