Of course everyone knows that this month is famous because a few famous and admired people were born in August — such as, Alfred Hitchcock, Andy Warhol, Martin Sheen, Koby Bryant, Barack Obama, Madonna, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Williamson, Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Brady, Neil Armstrong… anyhow, you get the idea. The world might be very different without these people, so hooray for August.
August was the 6th month in the early Roman calendar and named after Julius Caesar Augustus. In the original Roman calendar, the month of August was called Sextilis because it was the sixth month of the year. (Later, after January and February were added to the calendar, it became the eighth month of the year.) August in the Northern Hemisphere is similar to February in the Southern Hemisphere.
August was the 55th most common name given to a baby boy in Sweden in 2014 and in 2015, August was the only month beginning on a Saturday. And while we’re on a roll, Warren Harding is the only US President to have died in the month of August. Richard Nixon did, however, resign from the Presidency in August.
Hawaii was admitted to the Union as the 50th state in August and women were granted the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in August. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in August and the first atomic bomb was dropped in August. Christopher Columbus set sail on his first voyage across the Atlantic in August and the Lincoln penny was first issued in August.
So let’s hear it for August — look at all the people we wouldn’t have and the things that wouldn’t have happened if there were no August — Hooray for August!!
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