Top 10 things you never knew about August

Former US President Warren Harding

The month of August settled in quietly over the weekend, so let’s have a few facts about it.

 

1. The Romans gave this month its name in 8BC, after the first Roman Emperor Augustus who ruled from 27BC until his death in AD14.

2. Before then, the month had been known as Sextilis, as it was the sixth of ten months in the Roman Calendar, which began with March.

3. The Anglo-Saxon called August “Weodmonath” meaning “weed month”.

4. The birthstones for August are the peridot and the sardonyx and the flowers are the gladiolus and poppy.

5. August was the 55th most common name given to a baby boy in Sweden in 2014.

6. Statistics show that 22 per cent of men named August in Sweden were born in August.

7. Henry VI Part 1 and The Tempest are the only plays by Shakespeare that mention the month of August.

8. In 2015, August is the only month beginning on a Saturday.

9. Warren Harding was the only US President to have died in the month of August.

10. The city of Augusta, Georgia was named after Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719-1772), mother of King George III.