August

August (Aug.) is the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, coming between July and September. It has 31 days. It is named after the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar.

August does not begin on the same day of the week as any other month in common years, but begins on the same day of the week as February in leap years. August always ends on the same day of the week as November.

The Month 

This month was first called Sextilis in Latin, because it was the sixth month in the old Roman calendar. The Roman calendar began in March about 735 BC with Romulus. October was the eighth month. August was the eighth month when January or February were added to the start of the year by King Numa Pompilius about 700 BC. Or, when those two months were moved from the end to the beginning of the year by the decemvirs about 450 BC (Roman writers disagree). In 153 BC January 1 was determined as the beginning of the year.

August is named for Augustus Caesar who became Roman consul in this month. The month has 31 days because Julius Caesar added two days when he created the Julian calendar in 45 BC. August is after July and before September.

August, in either hemisphere, is the seasonal equivalent of February in the other. In the Northern hemisphere it is a summer month and it is a winter month in the Southern hemisphere.

No other month in common years begins on the same day of the week as August, but August begins on the same day of the week as February in leap years. August ends on the same day of the week as November every year, as each other's last days are 13 weeks (91 days) apart.

In common years, August starts on the same day of the week as March and November of the previous year, and in leap years, June of the previous year. In common years, August finishes on the same day of the week as March and June of the previous year, and in leap years, September of the previous year. In common years immediately after other common years, August starts on the same day of the week as February of the previous year.

In years immediately before common years, August starts on the same day of the week as May of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, October of the following year. In years immediately before common years, August finishes on the same day of the week as May of the following year, and in years immediately before leap years, February and October of the following year.

August observances

Fixed observances and events 

 August 1  National Day of Switzerland
 August 1  Independence Day (Benin)
 August 1  Emancipation Day (Bermuda, Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago)
 August 1  Army Day (People's Republic of China)
 August 1  Lammas, cross-quarter day in the Celtic calendar
 August 1  Statehood Day (Colorado)
 August 2  Republic Day (Republic of Macedonia)
 August 2  Emancipation Day (Bahamas)
 August 3  Independence Day (Niger)
 August 5  Independence Day (Burkina Faso)
 August 5  Victory Day (Croatia)
 August 6  Independence Day (Bolivia)
 August 6  Independence Day (Jamaica)
 August 7  Independence Day (Ivory Coast)
 August 8  Father's Day (Taiwan)
 August 9  National Day of Singapore
 August 9  Day of the Indigenous People (Suriname)
 August 9  National Women's Day (South Africa)
 August 10  Independence Day (Ecuador)
 August 10  Missouri Day
 August 11  Independence Day (Chad)
 August 12  Perseid Meteor Shower
 August 12  Queen Sirikit's Birthday (Thailand)
 August 13  Independence Day (Central African Republic)
 August 14  Independence Day (Pakistan)
 August 15  Assumption of Mary in Western Christianity
 August 15  Independence Day (India)
 August 15  Independence Day (Republic of the Congo)
 August 15  Independence Day (Bahrain)
 August 15  National Day of South Korea
 August 15  National Day of Liechtenstein
 August 15  Victory in Japan Day
 August 17  Independence Day (Indonesia)
 August 17  Independence Day (Gabon)
 August 19  World Humanitarian Day
 August 19  Independence Day (Afghanistan)
 August 20  Feast day of Stephen I of Hungary
 August 20  Regaining of Independence (Estonia)
 August 21  Admission Day (Hawaii)
 August 21  Ninoy Aquino Day (Philippines)
 August 21  Saint Helena Day
 August 23  National Heroes Day (Philippines)
 August 24  Independence Day (Ukraine)
 August 25  Independence Day (Uruguay)
 August 26  Heroes' Day (Namibia)
 August 27  Independence Day (Moldova)
 August 28  Assumption of Mary (Eastern Christianity)
 August 29  National Uprising Day (Slovakia)
 August 30  Constitution Day (Kazakhstan)
 August 30  Republic Day (Tatarstan)
 August 30  Victory Day (Turkey)
 August 31  Independence Day (Kyrgyzstan)
 August 31  Independence Day (Malaysia)
 August 31  Independence Day (Trinidad and Tobago)

Moveable and Monthlong events 

 Edinburgh Festival, including the Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle, takes place through most of August and beginning of September.
 UK Bank Holidays: First Monday in Scotland, last Monday in England and Wales
 National Eisteddfod, cultural celebration in Wales: First week in August
 Children's Day in Uruguay: Second Sunday in August
 Monday after August 17: Holiday in Argentina, commemorating José de San Martin
 Discovery Day in Canada: third Monday in August
 Summer Olympics, often held in July and/or August

Selection of Historical Events 

 August 1  1291: Traditional founding date of Switzerland.
 August 1  1914: World War I begins.
 August 1  1944: Anne Frank makes the last entry in her diary.
 August 1  1960: Dahomey (now called Benin) becomes independent.
 August 2  1990: Iraq invades Kuwait.
 August 3  1492: Christopher Columbus sets sail on his first voyage.
 August 3  1960: Niger becomes independent.
 August 4  1944: Anne Frank and her family are captured by the Gestapo in Amsterdam.
 August 4  1984: Upper Volta's name is changed to Burkina Faso.
 August 5  1960: Upper Volta becomes independent.
 August 5  1962: Film actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead at her home.
 August 6  1825: Bolivian independence.
 August 6  1945: The Atomic Bomb is dropped on Hiroshima.
 August 6  1962: Jamaica becomes independent.
 August 7  1960: Ivory Coast becomes independent.
 August 9  1945: The Atomic Bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.
 August 9  1965: Singapore becomes independent.
 August 9  1974: US President Richard Nixon resigns following the Watergate scandal, with Gerald Ford replacing him.
 August 10  1792: Storming of the Tuileries Palace during the French Revolution
 August 10  1809: Beginning of Ecuadorean independence movement.
 August 11  1960: Chad becomes independent.
 August 13  1960: The Central African Republic becomes independent.
 August 13  1961: Building of the Berlin Wall begins.
 August 14  1945: Japan announces its surrender at the end of World War II.
 August 14/15  1947: India is partitioned at independence from the UK, as the new mainly Islamic state of Pakistan is created.
 August 15  1960: The Republic of the Congo becomes independent.
 August 15  1971: Bahrain becomes independent.
 August 16  1977: Elvis Presley dies aged 42, leading to a worldwide outpouring of grief.
 August 17  1945: Indonesia declares independence from the Netherlands.
 August 17  1960: Gabon becomes independent.
 August 17  1962: Peter Fechter becomes the first person to be shot dead at the Berlin Wall.
 August 19  43 BC: Augustus becomes Roman consul.
 August 19  14: Augustus dies.
 August 19  1919: Afghanistan becomes independent.
 August 19  1991: The August Coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, in the Soviet Union, begins.
 August 20  1940: Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded with an ice pick in Mexico.
 August 20  1968: The Prague Spring uprising is crushed.
 August 20  1991: Estonia regains its independence from the Soviet Union.
 August 21  1959: Hawaii becomes the 50th State of the US.
 August 24  79: Vesuvius erupts, destroying Pompeii and neighbouring Herculaneum.
 August 24  1991: Ukraine regains independence from the Soviet Union.
 August 25  1825: Uruguay declares independence from Brazil.
 August 27  1883: Krakatoa, in the Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java, explodes, after a very violent eruption.
 August 27  1991: Moldova becomes independent from the Soviet Union.
 August 28  1963: The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom takes place, where Martin Luther King, Jr. makes his "I Have a Dream" speech for Civil Rights in the United States.
 August 29  2005: Hurricane Katrina wreaks devastation in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. New Orleans is flooded.
 August 31  1957: Malaysia, then the Federation of Malaya, becomes independent.
 August 31  1962: Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent.
 August 31  1991: Kyrgyzstan becomes independent.
 August 31  1997: Diana, Princess of Wales is killed in a car crash in Paris, leading to a big outpouring of grief.

Trivia 
 Along with July, August is one of two calendar months to be named after people who really lived (July was named for Julius Caesar and August was named for Augustus).
 Only one US President has died in August, Warren G. Harding, on August 2, 1923.
 August's flower is the Gladiolus with the birthstone being peridot.
 The astrological signs for August are Leo (July 22 - August 21) and Virgo (August 22 - September 21).
August is the second of two months beginning with 'A', the other being April, with both April 21 and August 21 falling either side of the Northern summer solstice.

References