100 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.

Astronomers meeting in Prague on 24 August 2006 voted to strip which world of its status as a planet?

Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet under the definition passed that day. Many astronomers had not made the trip to Prague, so they cast no vote.

Which Beatles album cover was photographed on a London zebra crossing in just ten minutes on 8 August 1969?

Abbey Road's cover was shot by Iain Macmillan from a step-ladder while a policeman held up the traffic behind him. Paul McCartney had sketched the idea.

Which swimmer won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in August 2008, beating Mark Spitz's seven from 1972?

Michael Phelps won the seventh of them, the 100-metre butterfly, by 0.01 seconds, a finish so close that Serbia's delegation filed a protest.

Which sprinter ran the 100 metres in 9.58 seconds at the World Championships in Berlin on 16 August 2009?

Usain Bolt left Tyson Gay with silver even though the American's 9.71 seconds was, at the time, the third-fastest 100 metres ever run.

Taylor Swift's song 'August', one corner of a teenage love triangle told across three tracks, appears on which album?

Folklore tells one summer romance three ways: 'Cardigan' is Betty's side, 'Betty' is James's, and 'August' belongs to the girl he leaves behind.

Which guitarist was the last act at Woodstock, finally taking the stage on a Monday morning in August 1969?

Jimi Hendrix went on only after long delays caused by the rain. By then the crowd had fallen to about 30,000 people, and many left during his set.

The Iowa State Fair, held in Des Moines every August, has shown off a cow sculpted from what since 1911?

Butter was Norma 'Duffy' Lyon's medium at the fair from 1960 until she retired in 2006: besides dairy cows she sculpted Elvis Presley, John Wayne and a rendition of The Last Supper.

La Tomatina, a mass food fight that began on the last Wednesday of August 1945, is held in which country?

Spain's tomato battle fills the small town of Buñol, home to about 9,000 people. Since 2013 it has been ticketed and capped at 20,000 participants.

Mary Shelley, born on 30 August 1797, began which novel after Lord Byron challenged his guests to write a ghost story?

Frankenstein came to Mary Shelley at 18, after she had at first been unable to think of a story and grown anxious about it.

Which US Forest Service mascot was authorised on 9 August 1944, with a first poster painted by Albert Staehle?

Smokey Bear gained a living counterpart in 1950, when a three-month-old black bear cub found after a New Mexico wildfire was given his name.

Which ship, the largest of the three Christopher Columbus led out of Palos on 3 August 1492, ran aground off Hispaniola?

Santa María was wrecked on Christmas Day, so the fort Columbus had built from her stripped timbers was named La Navidad.

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on 15 August 1769 in Ajaccio, the main town of which Mediterranean island?

Corsica had been ceded by the Republic of Genoa just one year before Napoleon was born there, under the name Napoleone di Buonaparte.

Which small Gulf state did Iraqi forces invade on 2 August 1990, overrunning most of its army within two days?

Kuwait had been accused by Iraq earlier that year of slant drilling to take oil from across their shared border. The invasion marked the beginning of the Gulf War.

Burning Man, a late-August gathering named for the torching of a giant wooden effigy, is held in which state's desert?

Nevada's Black Rock Desert has hosted the event since 1990. It began in 1986 as a small gathering on Baker Beach in San Francisco.

Which Judy Garland musical had its Hollywood premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on 15 August 1939?

The Wizard of Oz had already been tried out days earlier in small-town previews in Wisconsin and Massachusetts before it reached Hollywood.

Which Egyptian ruler died in Alexandria in August of 30 BC, after Octavian's forces had invaded her kingdom?

Cleopatra is popularly believed to have let an asp bite her, but Roman-era writers also describe a toxic ointment or a poisoned hairpin.

Which US agency was created on 25 August 1916 with a mandate to conserve scenery and wildlife for future generations?

The National Park Service was signed into being by Woodrow Wilson after a publicity campaign led by the business magnate Stephen Mather, who became its first director.

Which actress played Violet Weston, the pill-addicted matriarch of the 2013 film August: Osage County?

Meryl Streep earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for the part, and Julia Roberts a supporting nomination as Violet's eldest daughter, Barbara.

Which landmark law, outlawing literacy tests, did President Lyndon B. Johnson sign on 6 August 1965?

The Voting Rights Act followed the televised police violence against marchers in Selma, after which Johnson told Congress to pass sweeping legislation.

Which Japanese city was hit by the 'Fat Man' atomic bomb on 9 August 1945, though it was only the secondary target?

Nagasaki was bombed because cloud and smoke covered the aiming point over Kokura, the primary target, and the plane flew on.

Which Japanese emperor announced his country's surrender in a recorded radio address broadcast at noon in August 1945?

Hirohito had never before spoken to the common people, and he used formal Classical Japanese that many ordinary listeners found unfamiliar.

Which Soviet leader was detained at his Crimean holiday dacha by KGB agents during the failed coup of August 1991?

Mikhail Gorbachev returned to office when the coup collapsed in two days, and the plotters all lost their posts.

Which exiled Russian revolutionary was attacked with an ice axe in his Mexico City study in August 1940?

Leon Trotsky had spent his first two years in Mexico at the Blue House of the painter Frida Kahlo, with whom he had an affair.

Which NASA rover landed in Gale crater on Mars in August 2012, lowered on a tether by a 'sky crane'?

Curiosity was named by Clara Ma, a twelve-year-old from Kansas, whose essay won a student contest that drew more than 9,000 proposals.

Which British scientist posted a public invitation to join his World Wide Web project on 6 August 1991?

Tim Berners-Lee had put the first website online at CERN the previous December. It simply described the project itself.

Which company released its first Personal Computer, the model 5150, on 12 August 1981?

IBM kept the price down by building the machine from standard, off-the-shelf components. Its design became the basis for the 'IBM PC compatible' standard.

London's Notting Hill Carnival, held over the August bank holiday weekend, celebrates the culture of which region?

The Caribbean carnival traces back to an indoor event staged in 1959 by the Trinidadian journalist Claudia Jones, in response to racial attacks the year before.

National Aviation Day in the United States falls on 19 August, the birthday of which flight pioneer?

Orville Wright was still alive when Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the day in 1939, and he lived to see the dawn of supersonic flight.

Which actor played the bank robber Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon, based on a real Brooklyn hold-up on 22 August 1972?

Al Pacino won a BAFTA for the part. The real robbery, led by John Wojtowicz, turned into a hostage standoff that lasted fourteen hours.

August 'Auggie' Pullman, a ten-year-old starting school after years at home, is the hero of which R. J. Palacio novel?

Wonder gives its hero Treacher Collins syndrome, a condition that has meant many surgeries. A film version followed in 2017.

Which creature, once readily caught in the Great Lakes in late summer, gives August's full moon its traditional name?

Sturgeon were an important summer food staple for Native Americans living around the lakes, which is why August's full moon is called the Sturgeon Moon.

Lammas, a 1 August church festival marking the first fruits of the crop, is named after which blessed offering?

A loaf of bread was brought to church to be blessed on the day. The name comes from the Old English hlafmæsse, meaning 'loaf mass'.

Japan's Obon festival, most commonly held in mid-August with Bon Odori folk dances, honours the spirits of whom?

Ancestors are believed to revisit the household altars during Obon, so families return to their home towns to visit and clean the graves.

The Assumption of Mary, a feast celebrated on 15 August, was defined as Catholic dogma in 1950 by which pope?

Pius XII declared that Mary was taken body and soul into heaven at the end of her earthly life. Lutheran and many Anglican churches keep the same date as a feast of Mary.

Which Mississippi-born Nobel laureate wrote the 1932 Southern novel Light in August?

William Faulkner planned to call the book 'Dark House' until a casual remark by his wife Estelle, about the quality of the light that month, changed his mind.

Barbara Tuchman's Pulitzer-winning history The Guns of August is centred on the first month of which war?

World War I was the subject of a book that so impressed President Kennedy that he gave copies to his cabinet and military advisers and told them to read it.

The playwright August Wilson set most of his ten-play 'Century Cycle', including Fences, in which city's Hill District?

Pittsburgh's Hill District was where Wilson himself was born. Two plays in the cycle, Fences and The Piano Lesson, won him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

August Strindberg, the playwright of Miss Julie, is considered the 'father' of which country's modern literature?

Sweden also knew him as a novelist, poet and painter, and his 1879 book The Red Room has often been described as the country's first modern novel.

Which singer recorded the 1972 live double album Hot August Night at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles?

Neil Diamond's album spent 29 weeks at number one in Australia during 1973 and 1974. It captures one of ten sold-out shows he played at the venue that month.

Which band's 1993 debut album August and Everything After produced the breakout radio hit 'Mr. Jones'?

Counting Crows printed handwritten lyrics to a song called 'August and Everything After' on the cover, then decided to leave that song off the album.

Which young actor played the runaway musical prodigy in the 2007 film August Rush, opposite Robin Williams?

Freddie Highmore's character is an eleven-year-old called Evan Taylor, who leaves his orphanage for New York City and performs as August Rush.

The Perseid meteors of mid-August are known to some Catholics as the 'tears' of which saint, martyred on 10 August?

Lawrence is said to have been burned alive on a gridiron, and a Mediterranean folk legend calls the shooting stars the sparks of his martyrdom.

The 'Glorious Twelfth' of August opens the shooting season in Great Britain for which moorland game bird?

Grouse may not be shot on a Sunday, so in years when the date falls on one the season opens a day late.

Which country celebrates its National Day on 9 August, the date in 1965 when it separated from Malaysia?

Singapore had previously kept its national day on 3 June, the date in 1959 when it won internal self-government from the United Kingdom.

Which pioneering photographic process was presented 'free to the world' as a gift by a government on 19 August 1839?

The daguerreotype was unveiled that day by the astronomer François Arago, and the state awarded its inventor, Louis Daguerre, a pension.

The 'Wow!' signal, a 72-second radio burst picked up in August 1977, is a famous puzzle in the search for what?

Alien intelligence was what the Big Ear radio telescope was listening for. Jerry Ehman circled the reading on a printout and wrote the comment that named it.

Gold found at Bonanza Creek on 16 August 1896 set off a stampede of prospectors to which region of north-western Canada?

The Klondike strike was made on a stream then called Rabbit Creek, and the stampede began only when news reached Seattle and San Francisco the following year.

Cowes Week, a sailing regatta held at the start of August since 1826, takes place off which island?

The Isle of Wight regatta grew out of George IV's interest in yachting, which began while he was still Prince Regent.

At Puck Fair, held each August in Killorglin, Ireland, which animal is caught in the mountains and crowned king?

A goat is crowned 'King Puck' by a local schoolgirl known as the Queen of Puck, then led back to the mountains at the end of the fair.

Which island gained independence from Britain on 6 August 1962, with Alexander Bustamante as its first prime minister?

Jamaica's new flag replaced the Union Jack across the island that day, and Princess Margaret opened the first session of its parliament.